Aegis of Candlekeep
by Kyn
Summary: BG1. Gorion's daughter Aegis is a tad violent and likes to drink, but the old man's kindness rubbed off on her. This does create a bit of a problem when she ends up liking not only Khalid and Jaheria but also Xzar and Montaron.
1. Aegis

Setting: BG1

Hey everyone out there! I'm not dead, just uninspired, hehe

* * *

Aegis sighed from the confines of her bed at the inn. Her head was pounding with the last remnants of her hangover, and her clothing was lightly splattered with blood. Her arms sported several bruises from where the bar fight had gone mildly in her disfavor.

"Your dad's here!" Imoen piped cheerily from where she was nursing a broken arm. "I'd know them footsteps anywhere!"

Aegis grimaced and looked weakly towards the door of her room, biting her lower lip. It didn't take a wizard to figure out that she'd screwed up. Badly. The very _last_ thing she wanted was for Gorion to hear of her latest disaster.

But sure enough she could hear his soft voice, shadowed by the angry words of Ultraunt, Candlekeep's high librarian. Aegis moaned and squeezed her eyes together tightly. _I'm sorry papa. _She should have known Ultraunt would personally confront Gorion over this. Nasty uppity stiff-backed...

"Daww, cheer up!" Imoen laughed. "You know he can't stay mad at you! Now Winthrop, he's going to be mad at me for _weeks_!"

"That's the worst part," Aegis mumbled. "Winthrop yells at you, you duck your head, and you do some extra chores then you feel better. Gorion just _stares_ at me, then I feel even _more awful._"

Imoen shrugged. She couldn't really understand Aegis's self-imposed guilt, but then, she also wasn't the one who'd started the bar fight. "Hehe, Ultraunt really doesn't like us! He says you're wild, unruly, and evidence a glaring disrespect for life!"

"Gee," Aegis mumbled, "he makes punching people sound so cunningly refined."

"Well you did almost light the inn on fire. Oh, and you stabbed that mean old dwarf!" Aegis sighed and blushed heavily, disappointed with herself. A gentle knock came at their door. "Come in!" Imoen said.

The door opened slowly and a very old wizard stepped quietly in. His hair was long and gray, and wisps of it hung in his face. Beneath that shower of hair, Imoen felt he had a very kindly old face- the face you might expect on your grandfather, or a priest. A grandfather, yeah, that's how she'd always seen the old man.

Aegis felt a little differently but then, this was the man who had changed her diapers as a small child. 'Father' was quiet a suiting term from her point of view.

Quiet blue eyes shifted first to Imoen, and then to the incapacitated Aegis, who was trying her best to look dignified. They settled on the bedridden woman for a long moment before he stepped fully into the room.

Aegis winced. "Gorion, I-" she began, and then trailed off, unable to think of suitable words to explain her misbehavior. "I-I'm sorry," she finished lamely, and tried to melt into her covers and disappear.

The old wizard said nothing, leaning on his staff and contemplating her. After a long moment he came up and sat down on the side of her bed, and with an old weathered hand smoothed hair gently from her face. "I know," he murmured, and his quiet acceptance made Aegis feel all the worse- just as she'd predicted.

"I didn't mean for any of that to happen," she mumbled. "I sort of remember the dwarf touching my butt."

"He did!" Imoen seconded. "I watched! Aegis turned around and nearby punched his beard off- it was hilarious!"

Gorion actually smiled lightly. "Be that as it may," he told them both warmly (he shot Imoen an inclusive glance, lest she think he'd forgotten her), "you didn't need to hit him. Violence is not the best solution."

"He deserved it," Aegis grumbled.

"I believe you," he told her. "But that doesn't change the proper way to behave."

"I didn't mean to really _hurt_ him-" she protested, looking up at the wizard's gentle face.

"But you _did _choose to drink all that you did," he countered, his voice still soft but suddenly sterner. "What you did while inebriated may not have been voluntarily, but you made the choice to drink."

Aegis grimaced and nodded. She'd heard this lecture before.

Gorion chuckled at the face she made. "You don't think I understand, my child? I may not approve of your habits, but I'm an old man and I've seen and done much in my time. I know you like to drink, and I know I can't stop you. I just wish you understood your own limitations." He gently tapped her nose. "I wish you didn't put yourself into situations where things like this can happen. Next time you want to go for that extra pint, think about how much I worry for you, mm?"

She nodded miserably. "I'm sorry," she repeated, and truly she was. Aegis had many vices to her name, from questionable drinking habits, to sticky fingers, to a penchant for brawling, but one thing she could never be accused of was a lack of love for her foster father. She hated nothing in the world quite so much as disappointing him. Whenever he spoke, she was utterly cowed.

Maybe that's why Ultraunt had started talking to Gorion instead of speaking with them, Imoen reflected. He might have figured that Gorion was the only person Aegis would listen to.

"Now," Gorion said gently, patting Aegis's arm and looking to incorporate Imoen in his next statements as well. "The two of you are in terrible trouble. First you'll need to help Winthrop clean up the inn again, and then there are some particularly unpleasant cattle related chores for you to complete." Both girls groaned. "As for the visiting dwarf," he looked back to Aegis, who winced, "Ultraunt is still deciding how to handle the situation. The priests were able to heal him quickly and no lasting harm was done, but bloodshed is not permitted in Candlekeep. Were you not my daughter, he would have already thrown you out of the city."

Aegis closed her eyes and tried to fall unconscious. It didn't work, of course. Gorion smiled at expression on her face and recalled the dwarf calling this the best tavern brawl he'd had in years. Despite this the old wizard felt it best not to encourage her mildly violent disposition, and Ultraunt, if not the dwarf, was _furious_.

"Get some rest," he told her. "Around noon Winthrop will come and retrieve the both of you for your chores. Now hold still and allow me to quickly heal your wounds. And Imoen, try not to use your arm for at least a day..."

* * *

_Aegis was young still, only three years of age, but already rambunctious. He found her antics charming really. He would sit on the steps to their home and watch her chase after animals and play-fight imaginary dragons. He'd write letters or read, or perhaps go over a magic scroll or so. Aegis did some some magical potential. She'd usually gravitate towards him after awhile and ask him about what he was reading. If he was looking at a scroll, she'd spend hours staring at the magical runes, eyes wide in awe._

_Even so, he felt that her spirit was more suited towards the great outdoors._

_It was a particularly pleasant fall afternoon. The sun was setting far in the west, and the shadows it cast were long. The leaves were just starting to turn from green to yellow and the day was pleasantly warm. He was reading a letter from a dear friend when suddenly an unpleasant yowling assaulted his ears. _

_He'd looked up to see Aegis straddling a large house cat, her hands wrapped around it's throat, slowly squeezing the life out of it. The cat was spasming frantically, it's sharp claws tearing up her arms, but Aegis just smiled, staring down at it, as if in a daze. _

"_Aegis!" he cried, jumping to his feet and sprinting for her. He grabbed her arms and tried to pull her free. "Aegis, no! No! Let go!"_

_She didn't listen at first, and what was the point of magically compelling her? Had all of his efforts been in vain? Was the blood of Bhaal so strong in her that she could fall victim to such temptations on the spur of a moment?_

_But then her hands loosened. She looked up at him hazily and the color drained from his face. She was smiling "Aegis!" he pleaded with her. "Why would you do such a thing?" He already knew the answer. She didn't have a choice. _

"_It's fun, daddy," she answered brightly, but her face fell as she noticed the curves of his mouth- frowning and drawn as if in suffering. She had yet to learn the meaning of mental anguish or disappointment. All she knew was that her father was upset. _

"_Aegis, no, that's horrible! How would you feel if you were this cat?" he whispered. "Please, let go!"_

_She blinked and then dropped the writhing animal. It landed with a thud and then bolted off, staggering slightly. She lifted her hands to his face, seeming heedless of the cuts that laced up and down her arms, of the blood she smeared on his robes, and her brows furrowed in concentration. _

_He grimaced and held her tightly to him, this beautiful and horrible child he had never found it within his heart to kill. The babe he had raised thus far as his own, his little Aegis, covered in blood._

_She touched his face, the curves of his mouth, the pained wrinkles about his eyes."I don't understand," she mumbled. "Daddy, what's wrong?"_

"_Aegis," he whispered. "You love cats."_

"_They're pretty!" she agreed._

"_You should always take care of the things you love, and ensure never to hurt them," he murmured, and tears formed in his eyes. "That way, they will always be there. How would you feel if you were that cat? I think you're pretty. How would you feel if I strangled you?"_

_She frowned. Moral compass askew, she could not see the connection between herself and the cat, or recognize that she had harmed something she cared for. Nevertheless, as an intelligent and otherwise well-adjusted child, she could see the pain in her foster father's eyes, and was disturbed by it._

"_I'm sorry, Daddy," she told him. "I'm sorry. I wont every do it again. Please don't be sad."_

_He shivered and bundled her in a tight hug, and she hugged him back, worried and unhappy. She buried her face in his shoulder and hair. _

"_I love you Daddy," she mumbled. "I'm sorry."_

Gorion's eyes opened and he sighed, sitting up in bed and rubbing his temples. That dream again. It wasn't his favorite dream in the world he had to admit, but he supposed he'd had far worse. Light filtered slowly through the windows of his room, and he surmised it was about time that he woke up anyway. He stretched and meditated for awhile, and then lit the candelabra that sat upon his nightstand.

He took his time in dressing himself, feet scuffing over the dark blue stone out of which most of Candlekeep had been constructed. A gentle breeze filtered through his room. The cool light of morning stood out brightly on his floor.

He left his room in robes and sandals, and peered in to Aegis'. The girl was sleeping like a baby, her arms wrapped around one of her pillows and her blankets in quite the state of disarray. The girl's bed was a veritable nest of kittens. A cat was perched on nearly ever part of her, and each and every one of them was sleeping. He smiled gently and paused to watch her for a moment, admiring her despite all her flaws, despite the bar fight, despite the injured dwarf, despite the terrible nightmare that lingered on the edge of his consciousness. Admired her as only a parent could.

"Oh my beautiful child," he murmured softly. "What a handful you are."


	2. Lightning

Inspiration works in mysterious ways. This is what's coming out of my head- Bauldur's Gate- so this is what I'm writing. This story's been one I've wanted to tell for awhile now so, well, there it goes

* * *

"Ow! watch where you're mopping!" Imoen protested. "You almost hit my arm!"

Aegis lifted a brow and looked at her surrogate sister. Imoen's favorite color was purple and, as always, she was closed in varying shades of it. The younger girl had many a personality quirk but her taste in fashion was one of her more obvious ones. "If I _almost_ hit your arm, why did you say 'Ow'?" she questioned.

"Because you almost hit it!" the rogue replied, as if this made logical sense. She was currently perched on one of Winthrop's tables and was eating her lunch. She was taking ten times as long as Aegis had, and was talking incessantly the whole while.

Aegis smirked. "I regret to inform you, Imoen, but you're supposed to say 'Ow' when someone's hurt you, not when they've _almost_ hurt you."

"Pssh! What's the point in saying 'Ow' then? It's just a way of trying to pay more attention to what they're doing! Why bother saying 'Ow' if it's not going to have any effect?"

Aegis paused in her mopping. "To indicate a need for medical attention, or express a dislike for an action to be repeated?"

"I prefer my preventative 'Ow's much more than your reactive ones, thank you very much. Mine keep me from getting hurt, and yours are just a form of whining!"

Aegis rolled her eyes. "Get off your ass and help me mop."

"But I'm tired!" the other protested, and proceeded to utilize the Big Puppy Eye technique, in an effort to get Aegis to do most of the work. "And my arm hurts! Cleaning up all the broken glass took hours and-"

Aegis lifted a brow. Her pulse was still pounding in her head, and she would be lying if she said she didn't have the urge to vomit or topple over. Imoen pouted when she realized the Big Puppy Eye look wasn't going to work on hangover-Aegis, and then she laughed. "Okay, okay, I'm getting up!"

Winthrop found them fencing with mops, jumping from table to table and chair to chair, and hollering about violet-clad harlots and half-giant-drunkards. He would have been angry at them if all of his inn patrons hadn't already been awake, or the tavern had been any less clean. The girls had even polished every last one of his tankards.

Imoen knew all the steps she had to take to get Winthrop to forgive them. Aegis felt, as a bit of an inside joke, that Imoen could have written a book on the subject of buttering up innkeepers. Candlekeep. Books. ...It was funnier said while drunk.

As much as those two girls were a helluva lot of trouble, Withrop couldn't help but love the both of them dearly. After they'd cleaned up the inn- quite a job on it's own- he made sure they had a propper lunch of meat, cheese, and bread. They were exceptionally thankful and, with gratuitous appologies for their behavior the night before, they sat down to exchange pointless banter and eat.

Gorion had called Aegis the older of the two, although by his own word there wasn't a significant age gap between them- a few months if anything. Nevertheless, there existed a distinct older-younger sister bond between the two, further accentuated by the two's differences and similarities.

In many ways, the girls were similar. They both had a good sense of balance to them, as evidenced by how they could jump about on his furniture while mop-fencing and manage not to topple anything over or break anything. Plenty of grace. They also shared a bizarre sense of humor, and the tendency to end up in the possession of other people's things. Nevertheless, for all their similarities, the two were also as different as light and day.

Imoen was diminutive, small, and exceptionally bubbly. With a rounded face, thin eyebrows, an upturned nose, and short brown hair, she was the perfect picture of silly youth. She tended to greet people with a wry quip or an exaggerated hug-tackle. Furthermore, she was endlessly curious and most of her troubles arose from the fact that she'd stick her nose somewhere it didn't belong, or talk herself into a corner. She was good with the bow the guards told him, and had a promising future as an archer.

Aegis, while equally immature, had an older and grittier quality to her personality. She was tall- especially for a woman, with shoulders better suited to a boy her own age. She was the tougher, rowdier sort, and Winthrop figured she'd make a fine ranger one day. The way she gravitated towards animals and brawling seemed to exclude any other possible career path. Her sense of humor was a tad blacker than Imoen's and she tended to initiate their drinking escapades, but still...

Despite that Winthrop knew that if Imoen wasn't with Aegis, she'd be off getting herself in trouble in some other, more imaginative fashion, and frankly if they were both drinking in his bar he could keep an eye on them. Sides, he'd known Aegis since she was a wee babe. She'd been such a little thing, with unruly blonde hair and a big smile, and dem big ole' adorable eyes...

Thinking of the good old days made him smile. Aegis noticed and flipped crazy blond hair out of her face, looking up at him. "Sorry about yesterday, again, Winthrop. I know it was all my fault. You forgive me?"

"Wha?" he blinked, and then laughed. "Course I do." Aegis beamed. "Wont be serving ya any ale for a year, but course I forgive ya." Aegis blinked and her mouth dropped into a horrified grimace. No alcohol? For a year? To the hells with that! She'd have to do some extraordinarily taxing chores to get out of this one...

He seemed to notice where her thoughts were going, and laughed. "Ya ain't getting out of this one, girl."

Aegis touched the handaxe she always kept belted to her side. Although she'd never had reason to defend herself in Candlekeep, the weapon's far more innocent functions allowed her to carry it around without scrutiny from her elders. Any other weapon, with the exception of a staff or dagger, would have been restricted to her melee practice sessions. "I'll cut firewood," She swore. "Lots and lots and lots of firewood."

"Ain't budging," The portly innkeeper repeated firmly.

"I'll do inventory. I'll clean the storage room of rats. I'll clean the nobles quarters. I'll do the laundry. I'll do the _nobles_' laundry-"

He raised a brow at this last one, and she knew she'd found a suitable trade. She grinned but said nothing more, and took a big bite out of her lunch. Her headache was starting to subside, and she was really looking forward to completing the rest of her chores and putting this whole matter behind her.

She had no idea that she'd lose everything she'd ever been familiar with before the week was out.

* * *

Aegis huddled beneath the boughs of the tree, eyes wide, her whole body shaking. She'd seen it. She'd seen the blade go through his body. Rain gushed around her, pattering over the tree's leaves, and eventually making its way into her clothing.

"_Run, child! Run!"_

Her eyes squeezed shut and she choked back on sobs. That monster in the bone-tipped armor, casting magic left and right. Gorion couldn't be dead, _couldn't_ be. He was invincible. Perfect. But she'd seen it, seen him jerk, his hair falling into his face, frail body pierced, blood spilling everywhere. Somewhere out there that same warrior was looking for her now.

_He was after me_, her heart wailed. _Gorion died because of me_. Tears flooded down her face.

"_Surrender your ward. If you resist it will be a waste of your life."_

_Gorion... Gorion..._

Lightning flashed.

_Dadddyyy!_

_Aegis ran through the halls of the library. She was just old enough to finally realize that a storm was going on outside, and it terrified her. "Daddy!" she called desperately. "Daddy!" tears welled up in her tiny little eyes. She looked here and there, left and right, and yet her gray-robed guardian was nowhere to be found. She was alone. Completely alone._

_She dropped to the ground and began to wail. She cried, and cried, and then suddenly warm arms were around her, picking her off the ground, holding her close._

"_There, there, silly child... What is this wailing about?"_

"_Daddy! Daddy!" she sobbed, whirling to press her face into him. He chuckled and wiped boogers from her nose and tears from her eyes with the hem of his robe. He could always wash it later. A clap of thunder rocked through the air and Aegis squealed in horror. Realizing the source of her distress, Gorion blinked._

"_Aegis," he chuckled. "Oh dear child, it's okay... It is only lightning. It will not hurt you. It's outside, see?"_

"_I don't like it!" she wailed. "Make it stop!"_

"_You can't stop lightning," he said with a gentle smile, and sat down on one of the library's chairs to cradle her. "But don't worry, I wont let it get you. See? Nothing bad is happening. It's just a little loud, a little bright- nothing more." He rubbed her back in a circular motion and this calmed her somewhat. Even so, at the next clap of thunder she buried herself further into his robes._

_He put his arms completely around her, shutting out the light with his sleeves and, in her mind, keeping her safe. She breathed in and out deeply for a few minutes, wincing at every clap of thunder, before slowly poking her head out to look at the windows._

_They flash a ghastly white, and the thunder rumbled. She blinked and tilted her head to the side._

_Gorion smiled and stroked over her hair, letting her know that he was there "There, you see? It can actually be quite pleasant to watch on a nice evening. The clouds rolling in, and the rain pattering all around... all just broken occasionally by the rumble of thunder, the crack of lightning..." _

_The lightning flashed again. Calmer now, Aegis rearranged herself so that she was sitting more comfortably in his lap, and leaned her ear against his chest._

Almost twenty years later she could still feel his heartbeat, the overwhelming sensation of safety. She clung to it now, even though Gorion was gone and would never hug her again. She clung to it as she cried bitterly into her arms, and was comforted only by the sound of lightning.

* * *

In the morning Aegis managed to find the road. How the armored warrior had ever found her and Gorion on their trip through the wilderness was an enigma to her, and she felt concerned that they might have some means of tracking her.

Then again, if that were so, they would have found her last night and done away with her. She looked down the road towards Candlekeep, towards the place that had been home all her life. She turned and looked the other direction. A conveniently placed sign informed her that this was the way to the Friendly Arm Inn.

Aegis wanted to go home. She wanted to curl up by her fireplace with her cats, wanted Gorion to read her stories and chastise her for her misbehavior. Tears welled up in her eyes and she swallowed hard, fighting back the urge to vomit or cry.

If Gorion wasn't there, Candlekeep wasn't home. She had promised him that she'd move forward and he'd told her that if they were separated she needed to make her way to the Friendly Arm Inn. Well, they'd certainly be separated.

"Eya!" called a voice from behind her. She nearly jumped out of her skin and whirled around to find a short, purple-clad, very familiar rogue running towards her. "Aegis!" Imoen called, rushing up before her and then stopping. Her eyes were wide. She looked over Aegis for a minute, noting the dazed expression on the older girl's face, and then flung her arms around her surrogate sister.

"You're alive!" she cried happily. "I was so worried!"

"Imoen," Aegis gasped. "What are you doing here?"

"I followed you, silly!" She exclaimed, letting go and backing up.

"You should be at Candlekeep," the older girl grit out. "What are you doing here?"

Imoen gave a crooked grin and planted her hands on her hips. "Don't tell me you've struck yourself daft? Since when do I listen to my elders? I couldn't let you go out into the world alone! And look, now I'm so glad you're okay! I-I saw everything last night..." she paled.

"Imoen," Aegis said slowly, breathing deep. "How did you even know where we were going?"

"What? No I didn't steal into Gorion's study and peek at any letters, uh-uh, not me! Not even if that letter said something about you and him needing to leave!"

"Letter?" This caught the other girl's attention. She blinked back tears and tried to focus on her diminutive companion. "What letter?"

"Oh, um," Imoen shifted. "It... it said something about Candlekeep not being safe anymore, and you and Gorion needing to head out. Said it was hoping you'd find some friends along the way, because it was safer to travel in large groups. I only got a peek you know, and then I had to book it cause the old man was coming... But it seemed really important... It... it might still be... on his _body_," she noted slowly.

Aegis stiffened. "You..." she whispered slowly. "Do you... do you know how to get back to him? Where he fell?" A look of horror swept over her face. "I wasn't paying attention I- we... we need to, to bury-"

"Yeah I know where," Imoen interjected gently, touching her friend's shoulder. Aegis swallowed and her eyes watered, and really Imoen didn't know what to do about the situation. Usually Aegis was the one deciding where they would go and what they would do. Aegis was loud, brash, stubborn, opinionated... Seeing her so overwhelmed and lost really ground in the reality that poor old Gorion wasn't coming back. "Come on... Let's... let's go find him," the rogue murmured softly, and moved to take her friend's hand. "Come on, before all the little forest critters start moving around." She turned and started tugging Aegis back into the woods.

The taller girl just followed, dazed and hurt, and lost.

* * *


	3. Grief

* * *

Grief

* * *

They didn't encounter much on their journey through the forest, and though Imoen occasionally looked a little confused she managed to lead them to a large glade occupied by three stone circles. The night before Aegis had been too concerned with the thrill of the journey and later the terror of her escape to notice this landmark- but sure enough, there was a crumbled gray-robed body, slumped over the nearest of the circles.

_Daddy? _Imoen released Aegis's hand and stood back, figuring surrogate sister needed a moment alone. Aegis scarcely noticed her, walking forward and then dropping to her knees, eyes wide. She reached forward slowly, touching the soft gray robes and hair. So cold, and stiff, and lifeless.

_It can't be. He can't be dead. He cannot truly be dead. He is invincible. He could take down armies._

Trembling, she pushed her arms underneath him, scooping up the body carefully as if worried she would damage it. The rain last night had driven away the animals and vermin which might have otherwise feasted on him. Aside from the blood matting his clothing, he was untouched. Lifeless blue eyes stared up at the sky. She sat back on her heels and held him tightly against her, voicing her pain in a low, mournful sob.

_What if he was still alive? What if he died out here hours after he was wounded? What if he needed me? What if I could have saved him?_

Imoen had eventually come up to her and now placed a hand on her shoulder, patting it awkwardly. She didn't say anything and Aegis was grateful. The older woman only wanted to cry. She cradled the body of her foster father, smothered her face in his soft gray hair. She could feel places where the hair was twined together with beads. With a broken wail she recalled pouncing the man only a few days earlier to braid that hair and add those beads. For some reason this tiny memory transcended past and present, brought the two together, and sent the reality of her situation screaming through the confines of her skull.

Her father was dead. Anything she might or might not have been able to do was no longer of consequence. He would not be coming back.

She cried openly.

* * *

Aegis traced over his features and held his hands. Mostly she touched his hair. Her earliest memories of him were textural ones concerning that silver hair. She probably tugged on it a lot as a child.

They buried him later beneath a cairn of rocks, and tried not to think about whether it would keep animals and monsters from disturbing his bones. There was indeed a letter on him, and it said just so much as Imoen had mentioned. It was signed with an illustrious E, but as to whom this 'E' was, neither girl had any idea. Aegis tucked the letter into her backpack but took else from him. It would have felt too much like looting otherwise.

Finding his body, mourning him, burying him, and returning to the road took most of the day. They camped by the road that night, but tried to build their little fire where it wouldn't easily be seen. There was still an armored fiend walking about the woods somewhere, and Aegis had no desire to attract his attention. They figured they would leave in the morning and head East to the Friendly Arm Inn. If they met any fellow travelers on the way, perhaps they could join forces against whatever monstrosities the wood might offer.

Gorion had told Aegis to prepare for a journey of some danger, and she'd done her best to comply. He'd given her some gold and she'd turned in her old padded training armor for a brand new chainmail shirt. She had filled her backpack to the brim with food and water.

Imoen had brought a dagger and shortbow, as well as a wand that she had probably stolen off Ultraunt just before departing. Aegis took a sort of half-hearted satisfaction in the fact that, even in their last moments at Candlekeep, they'd managed to cause the stiff-necked librarian grief. Other than that she'd swiped a nice supply of rations from Winthrop. Both girls knew the innkeeper wouldn't mind. If he could see them now, camped out by their miserable little fire, mourning a person who had been parental towards them both, he would have smothered them with food. As it was, it would put a smile on his face if he knew that the best part of their day had been sitting down to a block of his cheese and a hunk of his bread and having a halfway decent meal.

Well, the second to best part. The best part was when Imoen hauled out a bottle of the tavern's finest wine, and shoved it pointedly into Aegis's hands. And that would have made him smile, too.

Aegis blinked at the surprise present and then looked slowly across the fire at Imoen. The younger girl grinned mischievously. "Go on, take it all. You've had a hard day," She noted. Aegis wanted to point out that Gorion had been a part of Imoen's life too- wanted to ask her why she didn't mourn the old man more, why she hadn't cried over his body or felt the need to embrace him- but Imoen had just given her a full bottle of a very good, very bitter red wine, and said that Aegis could have every last memory-softening drop. She tried to offer Imoen a glass, she really did, but when the young rogue refused she could only shrug and put the bottle to her lips, and chug.

She drank a lot and she drank it fast, and before long her head was spinning, and there were two of Imoen, and she could scarcely recall that she was alone in the forest or that her father was dead, or that she might not see her home again for the entire duration of her life. There was an annoying raccoon however who kept approaching their camp and trying to steal them food, and Aegis engaged in a terrible battle with it over a bag of peanuts.

"Avast ye, vile rodent! I'll have your head over this! I'll stick it on a pike and parade it around the town as if you were some terrible war criminal, till the authorities need to drag me away and a priest is called to determine if you've given me rabis! Damn it, no, _those_ aren't yours either! Gah! That's my bedroll, that's not even edible! Whoa, are there one or two of you? Ah- ah, just one! You won't confuse me with your evasive tactics! Get back here! Oof!" She tripped over the stump she'd been sitting on and landed on her chin but managed to save the alcohol from feeding the nearby trees. She sighed and hugged the bottle happily, momentarily forgetting the raccoon- that was, until it reappeared and made a go to steal her cheese.

She swore and fought it off with a stick, performing in several elegant flourishes (which were actually spawned by the fact that she couldn't hit the damned thing while inebriated, and was missing by a landslide). "Back! Back you wretched thing, back!"

Imoen's doubled-over laughter sailed over her ears. "I thought you were a _ranger_, Aegis! Aren't you supposed to like animals!?"

"What? You too? Are you in league with him, violet maiden? For shame, rodent! For shame! You have strucketh me most deeply, and my heart is wounded! Here you have turneth my beloved sister against me! I see how it is then- thieves protect their own even at the expense of family! Twice damn ye, vile rodent! Damn ye and all you're wretched ilk! And damn you too, violet harlot, and damn the demon licker!"

Aegis thought about this and then pet the bottle. "I didn't mean that. I take it back. Don't be angry."

Imoen had no regrets about forfeiting her right to a drink. At least drunk-Aegis wasn't angsting-Aegis. And in the morning, sick with a terrible hangover, angry-Aegis would be too grumpy to be sad. It was the perfect start for their adventure.

The only hole in her plan revealed itself when Aegis stumbled off to bed, and Imoen realized she had to stay up the entire night to watch the camp. After all, who knew what terrible knights or mischievous rodents might catch them off guard in their sleep?

Aegis woke up laying on her back. She had a headache, but her drinking spree the night before had been one of her gentler ones, and she didn't feel the need to puke out her guts. This seemed a good sign that she was fit to travel.

A furry gray face with a black masked peered down at her and chattered. Aegis blinked at it a long moment. "Very well, rodent. You may have won this round, but I assure you, I will win the war." The raccoon seemed unconcerned. It sniffed her face for a second and then hopped to her shoulder as she sat up and massaged her temple.

Well, it wasn't a cat, but she'd suppose it would have to do. She lifted a hand and ruffled it's thick pelt, twirled it's ringed tail around for a second, and then got up and set to warming up dinner. Imoen yawned and tried to get an hour long nap or so- anything that would give her the energy to face the coming day. Seeing that her companion had stayed up all night to watch their backs made Aegis bitter about her own weaknesses. She tried to be as quiet as she could to give her little sister some much needed rest.

They shared breakfast around an hour later, all three of them: rogue, ranger, and raccoon. They tried to finish their most perishable food supplies that morning, and were just about to pick up their backpacks and leave when a ghastly spat of chittering erupted from the forest, and four tiny blue humanoids with wild hair jumped out from the nearby bushes, charging the camp on all fours.

Imoen jerked backwards in surprise. "Gibberlings!"

Gibberlings. An accurate name for a very irritating creature. They shrieked in ungodly high voices, and the noise did _not _improve Aegis's headache. Not at all. The novice ranger snarled and jumped to her feet, whipping out her axe, whirling to face their attackers. When she moved towards them, there wasn't a spot of indecision on her face. On the day she'd left Candlekeep, she'd killed two would be assassins . She'd watched that armored knight butcher her father, she'd felt the sting of an enemy wizard's spell.

She was so f-ing _not_ going to cry over whatever unfortunate creature had _dared_ worsen her hangover. In fact, come to think of it, she had some pent up anxiety to work out.

Imoen yelped and jumped to her feet, picking up her bow. By the time she'd strung it and knocked an arrow, Aegis had already loosed a shriek of fury and dove at the oncoming monsters.

Her axe rose and fell. She delivered a glancing blow to the monster's head, slicing away it's ear and a great portion of it's cheek and biting somewhat into it's shoulder. The creature jerked wildly to the side in surprise, and with a sweep she embedded a thick swath of steel into it's face. It's nose shattered, cheek bones caving inward, and its eyes rolled up and died.

_F-ing, screaming, ugly, filthy-! _

She shrieked, slamming her axe into the next gibberling. One of the creature jumped at her, claws pawing at her face. She drew her axe back, slamming the butt of it into the small monster's chest, feeling ribs crack. Teeth sank into her leather armor. She couldn't care less, following through with a thick swipe to the beasty's chest.

Imoen blinked and stared in surprise. The suddenly enraged expression on her older sister's face was not exactly what she'd expected to see.

Another gibbering lunged at the blond woman's leg and she kicked at it. It's claws tried to find purchase on her armor. She was just about to bring her axe down on it's skull when the fourth gibbering leapt for her head and, feeling that her face was much more valuable than her boot, she swung the axe in a high circle that tore open the monster's entrails.

She'd swung too soon, and not enough force had hit the beast. It collided with her, making an audible _squelching_ sound as it's entrails burst outward and slithered down her armor. Her raccoon jumped onto her head to avoid being struck in the process. The gibberling twitched frantically, trying to keep itself upright and then slipped off her and fell back to the ground.

Covered in blood and yet undaunted by the carnage she'd just been exposed to, Aegis turned her eyes to the gibberling attacking her boot.

The whistle of an arrow sung past her and buried itself in the pitiful thing's back. It shrieked and Aegis slugged it with a backhanded smack of her axe. It's head snapped to the side and it crumbled over and went still.

The clearing was now very quiet, as all the high pitched chattering had creased. Aegis panted heavily and looked down at the four very dead monsters, before snorting, straightening herself out, and wiping her axe off on one of the thing's legs.

She turned back to a very bewildered looking Imoen. With her newfound animal companion still perched upon her head, she said very matter-of-factly: "We should get moving." Then she turned back to the camp, picked up her backpack, and walked past her younger sister towards the road.

"Well," Imoen mumbled quietly. "I didn't see that coming." She shook her head "Oh well." She scooped up her backpack and followed.

* * *

They walked in silence for awhile, and met no travelers for the first few hours at least. Imoen kept glancing at Aegis. The older woman's armor was still splattered with gibbering ook, but she seemed not to mind. After awhile, Imoen decided not to worry about Aegis's sudden anger towards the gibberings. The violet-clad woman put her arms behind her head and sighed, looking up at the sky. It was shaping out to be a great day. Aegis was grumbly, that was true, but she wasn't _crying_. Poor Gorion was gone, but no one could do anything about that-

Gorion was gone. Imoen's face fell slightly, but her inherant bubbliness overwhelmed it. Even Gorion, wherever he was now, wouldn't begrudge Imoen for enjoying the weather. The old man wouldn't want she and Aegis to be miserable. He'd want to see them safe and enjoying themselves. And it seemed like the Friendly Arm Inn was just the place to go!

Some excitement bubbled up in her. They were going on an adventure!


	4. New Friends?

I absolutely love Xzar and Montaron :P They're so awesome, yet it's so impossible to keep them with you if you plan on going good and staying friends with Khalid and Jaheira.

For those of you familiar with DnD:

Although I am a DnD fanatic and like Bauldur's gate, I'm going to play with the spells Xzar has available. I might throw in 3.5e spells, or use 2.0e standards, or just make up stuff as I go. It should be noted that "Cure Light Wounds" and similar spells were all originally considered to be of the school of necromancy (although they could only be cast by clerics, not wizard necromancers). This is because Necromancy deals with the boundary between life and death. I like this convention, and I feel that it explains why Xzar would offer _healing_ points as opposed to any other type of small gift.

I've also made Xzar very skilled in the art of alchemy, and have decided that the potions he offers Aegis are of his own making :) I also have him make poisons for Montaron, but that wont be until later.

* * *

_**New Friends?**_

* * *

A high feminine scream pierced the air, horrified and clearly in grave distress. Both Aegis and Imoen nearly jumped out of their skins in alarm and then shared a look. They bolted off the side of the road without a word shared between them, heading towards the sound.

Imoen frowned as a massive roar blew through the air around them, pulling her bow off her shoulder and knocking an arrow. "What was _that_?" she called to her sister. Imoen was a far better student than Aegis and could recall the names of many Sword Coast monsters, but she could only put a name to images, not sounds.

"I think it's a bear!" Aegis surprised her.

Aegis surprised herself, actually, and then grimaced. Memories flit through her mind, of Gorion using magic to show her all sorts of wild animals, and entertaining her with their strange noises and spectral shapes. "Stay close to me- bears are worth a hundred gibberings!"

Imoen was about to ask for further explanation when both girls suddenly reached a glad and crashed out into it rather unceremoniously. A shaggy black monster had made it's way several branches up a large oak tree. As the girls reached the tree, the beast's stout head swiveled towards them, and growled.

A squeal emanated from further up the oak tree. A quick glance told Imoen that someone was up higher in the branches, hiding from this animal. A glance back down at the bear indicated that the animal wanted to eat them, and planned on making short work of it. It nearly rolled out of the tree and barreled towards them without ever breaking it's stride.

On all fours it wasn't particularly large. If it had stood up on its hind legs, it would only have been as tall as Imoen. Never the less, the way Aegis backed up a step and blanched white indicated that it was something to be feared. The violet-clad woman released her arrow. It said through the air and struck the shaggy beast head on, burying three or so inches into it's skin.

The bear roared, and seemed to become much angrier. Imoen's eyes widened.

"Back up, back up, back up!" Aegis screeched at her, hefting her axe and charging for the black-furred monstrosity. "Let me handle it!"

Imoen obeyed immediately, backpedaling hurriedly as she nocked and aimed another arrow. She released it. This one skimmed the bear's side, and it didn't even seem to notice. It's dark eyes shifted from Imoen to Aegis and it charged at her, lifting it's massive paws as she came in range and making to tackle her.

Aegis sidestepped, rolling to the side of the thing and taking a glancing sweep on her leg. Her racoons tried desperately to hold onto her head in the confusion. She spun around and jumped at the thing again, hacking with the axe.

The thick blade buried itself several inches into the animal's meaty hide. The bear turn around and nearly knocked her head off. One poorly aimed smack of it's thick paw and the world was dark and spinning, filled with stars, and a surprising amount of red. She staggered backwards and her racoon went missing in action.

The bear was on her in a second. She instinctively lifted her axe, catching the beasts jaws on the wooden shaft. Long claws curled into her armor, tearing it, ripping skin. Aegis howled, kicking at the thing and feeling it's claws tearing chunks of chain mail free. Another second of this and she'd be dead!

Four small balls of light burst out of the corner of Aegis's vision like arrows, smacking into the bear's head and burning pits into it's flesh. The beast roared and jerked its head up, dark eyes focusing on Imoen.

Imoen was holding Ultraunt's wand at ready. She gulped when the bear looked up at her, as it looked angrier than ever. _Oghma help me!_

The bear rolled off of Aegis like a boulder might, and then barreled straight for Imoen, roaring. Dazed, injured, but highly irate, Aegis flailed out with her axe and sank it's head deep into the animal's right back leg. The attack tripped the bear, which sprawled onto it's face and bellowed.

Imoen sent another burst of _magic missiles _at it with her stolen wand. "Aegis, get up!"

The ranger staggered to her feet, wiping blood from her face and trying to get a good grip on her axe. The bear was having none of this. It whirled around and made to stand, only to fall back to it's forelegs. It snarled at her and lifted a paw. Aegis took a step backwards and lifted her axe. Something about this situation felt strangely familiar...

For a moment, neither bear nor woman moved. Then Aegis's pet raccoon quickly darted up to her side and growled menacingly at the much larger animal. She didn't spare it a glance, but smiled inwardly. Apparently she'd chosen a very stalwart animal companion.

The bear gave her raccoon a return growl but lowered its paw and backed up a step. It grumbled and shifted about it's heavy bulk, dragging it's injured foot behind it. After a moment it turned and quickly lumbered off, apparently thinking better of the fight.

The clearing was quiet for a very long moment. Then Aegis groaned in relief, looking down at her shredded armor and feeling over the broken chains. Below the metal, her leather had been torn to ribbons and blood oozed quietly from a few deep scratches. Her blonde hair was in quite the state of disarray- filled with sticks and dirt and blood, and thick cuts on the edge of her face were bleeding openly. If the bear had hit her head square on, it would have killed her.

The whole event had taken only a few minutes of Aegis's time, but she was now hurt, stiff, exhausted, and felt very much like... well, like she'd been mauled by a bear.

"Are you alright!?" Imoen exclaimed, pocketing the wand and rushing up to Aegis. She took the older woman's face in her hands and then grimaced. "Hold on a second, don't move, I'll bandage you up!" she called, pulling her backpack off and rummaging around for some linen.

"I'm... I've... Holy Oghma's giant ass, that was lucky."

"You're telling me!" she cried. "When it knocked you over I thought it had bitten your head off! Hold still!" She stood up and started pressing the linen into Aegis's face wound.

"Ow, watch it! That hurts!"

"I said hold still, I'll never get it bandaged if you jump around like that!"

"I'm not jumping anywhere, you're shoving your fingers into my jaw muscles- watch it!"

Imoen managed to secure the linen against her face, and Aegis grimaced to herself. "Why the hell did we do that again? Gods, a _bear_."

"It's because we heard that lady scream- oh. Oh that's right." Imoen turned back towards the tree, but there was no sign of the person she'd previously seen in it's branches. It appeared that whomever the bear had been threatening had snuck off once she'd seen the animal otherwise occupied. "Well that's ungrateful, it looks like she ran away..."

"I am offended! But could I interest you in a potion?" a voice sounded directly to their left. Both women yelped and spun around.

The speaker was a tall but very slender man in green robes. His hair was shoulder length and graham colored, and tossed about in a very messy manner reminiscent of a bad case of bed-head. His green eyes were pale- the irises light and almost colorless- and he sported dark black tattoos that made him look particularly unnerving.

The markings on his face, for instance, imitated the makeup of a harlequin. His lips were painted black in a permanent smile that extended across his cheeks and nearly up to his ears. Like-colored diamonds were drawn around his eyes, sharply contrasting with his irises.

He was smiling innocently at the both of them in a manner that was at once charming and repulsive. In his hand he held several healing potions, which Aegis immediately coveted.

"Who the hells are you?" she asked, exhausted and distrusting.

"Why, my name is Xzar! I'm just a poor unfortunate traveling wizard, and this is my aggravating companion, Montaron!" he beamed in a way that was both juvenile and slightly haughty.

Aegis looked to the left, to the right, and then an annoyed growl draw her eyes downward. Sitting beside the wizard was a very irate and shady looking halfling, with coal-black hair and venomous eyes. He held a well-sharpened dirk in one hand and was picking dirt from it's edge.

"We're trying to get to the Naschel mines," The wizard explained, and his words sounded so completely rehearsed that Aegis went way past disbelieving him and somehow found herself back on the 'believing him' side of things again. "We're on a mission to investigate the iron crisis in the region!" Imoen and Aegis blinked and looked at one another. Each blinked twice. Then they looked back at the wizard, confused as to why he was telling them his traveling plans out in the middle of a forest, hundreds of yards from the road, right after a bear attack.

The halfling looked on the verge of assaulting his wizardly companion, but Xzar continued, heedless of the potential danger. "We were hoping you might be in the same direction? Perhaps we could help each other out. I happen to be a wizard, and my _associate_ is skilled with the dagger." Aegis noted that Xzar was very deliberately avoiding the use of the word 'friend', apparently to avoid confusion. Neither of the two men seemed to care for one another.

"Well, actually," Imoen said, but Aegis had already dropped her axe and swiped the healing potions from a startled Xzar, who jumped back and examined his hand as if he'd just been bitten.

_Odd little man_.

Aegis had no guarantee the vials weren't poisoned, but her wounds were absolutely _killing_ her. She downed one of them in a single motion, and was happy to find her fears unfounded. The healing potion's energy washed over her in a pleasant rush. The taste was bitter, but instantly her aches and pains were fading away.

"Ah," Aegis sighed happily. "Thank you."

Imoen giggled. "If you don't mind me asking," Imoen piped up, looking back towards the wizard in green, "Where exactly did you... come... from?"

"Oh, well, I've traveled many places but most recently I-"

"She means the bear, ye damned fool wizard!" the halfling snarled at his side. "Ye don't just start talking to a person in the middle of the forest!"

The wizard blinked. "Ah, we were accosted by that terrible dirty animal before you and your friend showed up and chased it off. We'd climbed up the tree, but much to my chagrin it started to follow... I didn't know bears could climb, did you, Monty?"

"I only told ye ten damn times. If ye'd just cast a spell on the thing, we wouldn't have even gotten into that whole mess!"

Comprehension flashed over both womens' faces and they spent a moment to digest everything Xzar had said previously. Their confusion at finding him out in the middle of the woods had prevented them from hearing much of what he'd said about Naschel. After a moment, Imoen frowned. "Oh. Who screamed? We thought it was a woman."

Montaron jerked his thumb at the wizard.

Xzar grimaced, and then suddenly his voice distorted into something high-pitched, shrill, and slightly feminine. "It was so dirty!" he wailed. "So very, very, very dirty!"

Imoen made an 'o' shape with her mouth, and nodded to Montaron.

"It probably had flees and worms and parasites and- Ah!"

Aegis's raccoon had just jumped up to her shoulder and Xzar started, looking at it with wide eyes. The ranger docked her head to the side and patted her animal companion's head. "You were saying?" she asked politely, a wry smile forming on her face.

Xzar gurgled something inarticulate about dirt, and his voice cracked while he was doing it. Imoen giggled at his morbid expression. "Actually we're heading towards the Friendly Arm Inn, to meet up with some friends of a friend of ours... But the Inn's a bit closer to Naschel isn't it? And if we can't travel with you after that, there's bound to be some other adventurers heading south!"

Montaron perked up at the mention of the inn (if the stories were true, halfling appetites were legendary...), and for a moment looked slightly less dangerous. Her words also seemed to jar Xzar back to the present and he paused to consider the offer on a more business related note. After a moment he finally nodded.

"Alright then," he beamed. "But I expect to be paid in pidgeon brains-"

Montaron swore. "Wait just a moment ye damned wizard!" he snarled, jumping to his feet. "Ye don't go where I don't go, and I haven't said anything about agreeing to none of this."

"I haven't either," Aegis noted, stretching her arms behind her back and then offering one of the potions to Imoen.

Xzar blinked and frowned at the both of them. "But you just took my potions!" he hissed, in a high, grating, and freakishly womanly tone. "I think that deserves some aid in kind, don't you?"

Imoen jumped and blinked at him. "Um, well we did save you from a bear," she reminded him gently.

Xzar shifted his weight as he considered this counter argument. "Ah, that is, I wouldn't hold such a thing against you, but your conscience would know otherwise!" His personality back flipped again, and when spoke again his voice was warm and small. "After all, what's a poor duo like us to do, alone out in the woods with dirty bears running around? You wouldn't just leave us here..." And then back flipped again, into something very nasty, with a devilish grin and a very low pitch. "Woooulldd youuu?"

Montaron slapped his face and swore, wringing his dagger as if he were seriously contemplating stabbing the wizard and getting things over with. "Ye durned fool wizard," he snarled low in his throat.

Aegis and Imoen stared, and cocked their heads to the side in unison, and then looked back at one another. Each came to the mutual decision that Xzar was the creepiest, craziest, and most fascinating person they had thus far encountered over the duration of their relatively short lives.

"I take it back," Aegis decided. "I think I like him." Montaron jerked his head up and stared at her.

Imoen lifted a brow at this absurdity and smiled widely. She couldn't agree more with Aegis's assement. Better yet, it seemed her 'older sister' was keeping her mind off Gorion, and that was a good thing! Aegis had been so stiff and mopey, and well, it was horrible Gorion was gone and all, but Aegis was supposed to be _fun_.

"I still ain't agreed to nothin'!" the halfling roared, stepping between them and Xzar and glaring at the two women.

Imoen looked down at him. "Aww, but we insist! After all you were so generous with those potions," she purred, and Xzar smiled happily. "And we have food!" she continued, digging into one of their packs and pulling out a block of cheese.

That got a reaction. The halfling's mouth opened slightly, closed, contorted into a grimace, and then swore. "Fine," he snapped. "Just fine. The Friendly Arm Inn you say? Fine."

The wizard smiled. "I'm so delighted, I've decided not to be offended anymore!" he declared loudly- too loudly.

Aegis blinked. "About what?"

"Oh your violet companion's comment just before we met. I did not run away while you were fighting the bear!" He smiled. "Instead I merely hid and watched your battle in the hopes that you might die and could make use of your livers." He beamed at them happily, as if he had just told them that it was going to be seventy degrees and sunny for the rest of their trip, with minimal chance of rain.

Imoen and Aegis both grinned.

"That's very thoughtful of you, Xzar," Imoen decided. Montaron shot the girls another look of surprise and then grimaced. "Give me some of that cheese," he growled, and looked around. "Which way to the road?"

"Meh, this way," Aegis pointed, and started to walk. "Come on, we can eat as we go."

"Ye sure it's this way?"

"Positive, I've a really good sense of direction. Why, did you lose the road?"

The lack of response was confirmation enough. "Oh this shall be a splendid little adventure!" Xzar squealed after a moment, and then in a low, hoarse, and almost seductive voice added, "It's so _nice_ to have such _kind_ and _intelligent _friends." Montaron growled something unintelligible and took a bite of cheese. Imoen giggled. Aegis grinned back at the crazy wizard. This was going to be an eventful week, she could tell.

More importantly, she was no longer dwelling on Gorion.

* * *

Yarg! Review!


	5. Monty, Its a Mosquito!

Somehow this chapter got deleted a long time ago, and replaced with the chapter that comes after it (approaching the inn)

I don't have the most-recent version of this chapter, but I've uploaded what I do have, for anyone who still reads this.

* * *

They made camp just before the sun left the sky, so they could be picky about their camping spot and avoid wandering in the woods while monsters were about. The roads weren't particularly safe these days, and all four companions decided it was safer to camp some distance into the brush, so as to avoid monstrous detection.

Xzar had been chattering on and off about things that made very little sense, and while Montaron seemed mildly irritated by this behavior, Imoen and Aegis both listened and answered as best they could whenever he looked at them expectantly. If their new companion's obvious insanity bothered them, they didn't show it, and this earned them more than a few glances from Montaron.

"-and that is why you should never trust a talking tree," Xzar concluded.

"But I don't think that dryad _meant_ to throw you off a cliff," Imoen offered. "I hear they're really quite nice, actually- just a little vain and reclusive."

Xzar nearly jumped out of his skin, whipping about to stare at her. He blinked slowly several times, causing Imoen to stare back at him in confusion. After a moment he responded as if he hadn't just produced a very long and awkward silence: "Pah! They're vile, dirty, nasty little things! They should all be gutted and strung up like oil lamps on wire! And then lit on fire to complete the simile! Why, have you ever met one?"

"Well no, but I've read-"

"You can't believe everything you read, you know!" he squealed, and then leaned down to whisper in the much shorter woman's ear. "I know, I've written some!" he cooed.

"Well you can't believe everything other people tell you either, so why should I believe you?" she countered with a wry grin, and tapped him on the nose. Xzar straightened in surprise and wrinkled his nose, and then pondered the question.

"Because I'm wonderful," he told her after a moment, putting his hands on his hips and sticking out his chest.

Several feet ahead of them, Aegis choked into her water canteen. She sputtered and laughed (much to the bewilderment of the wizard) and grinned back at the both of them for a moment. "Yes, yes you are, Xzar," she agreed. Then she looked down at the halfling. "Montaron, what do you think? This pine should keep off any rain tonight, and by the look of the clouds we'll have a lot."

"Should work," he muttered, trying to ignore Xzar and glad that someone else was shouldering the burden of _talking_ to the madman. "But if he doesn't stop talking I might have to shove a boot in his mouth."

"Let's just get a fire up and going before the weather turns. Oh, do half lings half low light vision?" she queried. "I always forget these details..."

He grunted in confirmation.

"Alright, you look for firewood and I'll clear out the camp site. Sound good?"

He grunted again and then moved to locate some brush and tinder while Aegis stepped to the more laborious task of clearing out the underneath of the pine tree. Imoen and Xzar both watched quietly and made no move to help either of their companions.

Aegis paused and looked up at them. They both blinked at her innocently. Aegis lifted a brow, and eyed Imoen expectantly. The younger girl blinked a few more times before sighing. "Alright, alright, I give," she sighed dramatically, and then hurried up to help Aegis clean. Montaron made no similar efforts to solicit Xzar's aid, and in the end it was probably best that the wizard wasn't allowed to handle too much dried tinder. The girls hadn't known him for a particularly long stretch of time, but they each had a sneaking suspicion he might accidentally light something on fire.

Dinner was simple but filling, with Montaron easily eating twice what either girl could manage. They didn't begrudge him the loss of food, however, especially as the inn wasn't particularly far away, and they had plenty of supplies to go around. Afterward, they talked briefly around the fire, sharing some information about Naschel's iron crisis and the various troubles of the south. Aegis fed her raccoon peanuts and tried to think of a name for him. Eventually she chose to call him Urso, in honor of the bear he'd been so brave to growl at. The little animal accepted the food happily and then hopped off into the night to scavenger for other goodies and, perhaps, meet some pretty female raccoons. Aegis presumed he'd return come morning.

Montaron had volunteered for the first watch, Aegis the second, and Imoen the third. Again they did not ask Xzar for his assistance in this matter. (They wanted to keep their livers, after all.) It didn't take Imoen to head off to sleep, particularly since she'd stood watch the whole previous night. Xzar was next, yawning something about beauty rest and a need to study his spells come morning. Aegis found her sleeping back soon afterward, exhausted from all the hand-to-hand combat.

The camp sight was still for a long time. When several minutes had passed, Montaron shifted from his position by the fire and eyed the sleeping girls. He snorted and turned back towards Xzar. The wizard was wide awake- as Montaron had expected- and sitting up in his sleeping bag. He'd taken out some of his own rations, a bit of liver and spice, and was snacking on them.

"They're both asleep," Montaron growled. "Let's get this over with quick. Cast yer deafness spell on the purple one- I want to get the ranger out of the way first."

Xzar blinked and looked over at the halfling. He frowned. "We're never going get to Nashkel if you keep doing that," he protested. "They're useful. _Especially_ the ranger."

"I don't give a shit what you think, and the nature-brat's worthless." the halfling snarled. "Goody two-shoes whelp. Now give cast the spell so I can stick her. She's got a nice bit of gold on her, and food enough to last us for a week."

Xzar crossed his arms over his chest. "No," he snapped.

" 'No,' " the halfling mocked. "What do you mean 'no', you insane freak? Give it to me, or I'll stick her without the spell and then you'll have to help me deal with the other girl."

Xzar's eyes narrowed. "I _like_ them," he hissed. "If you try and hurt them, I will wake them up!"

Bah!" Montaron snarled. "You couldn't risk them killing me. Fine, I'll do it myself." He strode up to the sleeping Aegis, hefting his dirk one handed.

Xzar glared, and took in a deep breath. "Monty!" he shrieked in a piercingly high voice. Aegis jerked to a wakeful position and looked around dazedly. Imoen snorted and rolled over, pulling her pillow over her head. "Wha-what?" Aegis groaned. Montaron swore and quickly hid the dirk behind his back, creeping back to his side of the fire. He just had to hope the human girl's poor night vision would hide his botched coup de grace.

"Xzar!" Aegis moaned blearily. "What the hells?"

Xzar leered at Montaron, who shot him a baleful glare over the fire. "I thought I saw a mosquito," the wizard offered by way of explanation. "It was going to kill Monty!"

Aegis stared dumbstruck at the green-clad man a second before turning over and going back to bed. She was out again within seconds.

Xzar smiled and finished his snack sloppily. He wiped his hands off on his robes and then yawned and moved to slip back inside his bedroll. "I like her Monty. She's strong enough to be useful. Be nice with her."

The halfling sneered but didn't comment, settling down for first watch.

The next day they woke up to find Gibberings pouring into their camp. Imoen's shouts quickly roused them, but the high pitched chitters that spilled into the campfire made her warning almost unnecessary. Xzar yelped and jumped to his feet, but forgot to first slip out of his sleeping back and so quickly tripped and sprawled onto his face.

Montaron and Aegis snarled in unison, clambering to their feet and drawing out weapons. They gave one another a glance and Aegis grinned. "I run in roaring, you flank. Fun?"

He eyed her a moment and then returned the grin, albeit a bit more evilly. "Aye. Lead the way."

"My pleasure. Imoen, back up!" Aegis hefted her axe and then charged forward, rushing past Imoen to meet the oncoming torrent of gibberings. There were easily fifteen of them this time- far more than when she and Imoen had last encountered the beasts. The rational part of Aegis' brain reasoned that bowling into them was likely a bad idea, but she tended to ignore that part of her brain quite frequently.

Imoen's arrows followed her as she barreled headlong into the rushing monsters. A sweep of her axe, and Gibbering limbs went flying.

Montaron couldn't truly admire Aegis's fighting style, simply because he'd never dive headlong into a group of enemy monsters. There was a reason he preferred to strike from the shadows. Ergo, was difficult to see any skill behind Aegis's rampage. Warrior nothing more than a target dummies to draw attention while _he_ did the real work.

Nevertheless, Montaron had to give her dues for not only guessing his fighting style but willingly taking the Gibberings' attention so that he could sneak behind them. He crept up behind one of the annoying monsters and let his shortsword glide over it's neck. Blood spurt in a red arc as the thing gurgled and died.

Aegis glanced up at Montaron. She grinned and whirled around, smacking a Gibbering his way with the flat of her axe. He smirked nastily back, and stuck his dagger through it's spine. Maybe Xzar had a point.

Speaking of Xzar...

After the battle, they found the wizard hopelessly tangled in his sleeping bag, in such a complex and convoluted manner that even Montaron felt he could not possibly have accomplished it accidentally. It took Aegis and Imoen ten minutes to untie him again, after which he chastised them sternly for tying him up and leaving him to die at the hands of dirty Gibberings.

Aegis and Imoen shared a glance. Then they looked at Montaron. The trio shared a unanimous shrug.

"Is he usually more useful in combat?" Aegis queried. "So far the only things I've seen him do are lose a duel to a sleeping bag, and get chased up a tree by a bear..."

"What!" the wizard cried, still trying to disentangle his foot from the sleeping bag "I am Xzar the terrible, magnificent,, and awesomely powerful! Of course I am useful!" He pouted, and looked to Montaron for support.

The halfling eyed him with unconcealed malice and a smidgen of disdain. "Some days," Montaron decided. "But then he's twice as irritating."

Xzar's eyes narrowed, his eyelids framing a baleful and very haughty glare. Although he was certainly quite insane, Imoen had the sneaking suspicion he was the more intelligent of the two men. She winced and reached out to pat Xzar's shoulder. The wizard immediately flinched away from her as if stung, and whipped around to look questioningly in her direction.

Imoen blinked. "Um. Well. Yesterday we met several groups of Gibberings, and we'll probably meet more today. Say, what kind of wizard are you, anyway?"

Xzar blinked and straightened, smiling at the two girls. "I am a necromancer!" he declared happily, and then giggled childishly. "I like playing with dead things. They're oh so delightfully fun!" Montaron growled.

Aegis shrugged. "I'm not at all surprised," she confessed. "Favorite spell so far?"

"Chill touch!" Xzar cooed happily.

Aegis looked at Imoen for interpretation. Imoen giggled. "Glowy magic on hand, touch enemy, enemy hurt." Aegis nodded in comprehension.

"Ah, so you need to get close to the gibberings then. Fine then, next time we see some, stick by me."

Xzar beamed. "That's me! I've got your back!"

Aegis considered all the horrible things Xzar could accidentally or intentionally do to her while her back was turned- being that he was a necromancer, and all. Then she shrugged and gave the green-clad man a smile. "Well that's a leg up from the halfling. If he had my back, I'm sure he'd stab it." She smirked down at Montaron, who lifted a brow in surprise at her bluntness. "So, I'm hungry. Breakfast, everyone?"

They met a strange old man on the road that day. He had a pointed hat, a long pipe, a gnarled wooden staff, and long red robes. He looked for all the world like a wizard, but passed himself off as a humble traveler, and asked strange questions of the group.

In particular, he asked his questions of Aegis- jovially inquiring as to whether she was foolish or insane to travel the roads at such a dangerous time, and asking about her travel plans.

Her answers were vague, his responses were kind, and he left just as quickly as he had come. He winked a blue eye as he went and Aegis grimaced, watching him leave. Then she reached inside her torn armor and touched the tuft of silver hair Imoen had collected for her.

For some reason she couldn't help but be reminded of her missing foster father.

_Gorion_...

Just three days ago, she'd been walking through the woods with her father at her side, excited to be going out into the world for the first time in her life. Gorion was talking distractedly about some coming danger, and occasionally warning her to stay close. He'd seemed worried, blue eyes darting about for signs of danger. Now she understood why.

Aegis looked around at her current companions. Xzar was peering suspiciously after the departing wizard/traveler, and Montaron was just growling and waiting for them to start moving again. Imoen was looking at her expectantly.

"Well, that was weird," she reflected, a bit more quietly than she intended. After a second she started walking again, and her three companions followed.

At least she wasn't alone.


	6. Approaching the Inn

I like this story, and believe I shall continue with it until it begins to bore me...

I want to warn everyone that the rating may eventually escalate to "M" for Mature audiences, but I don't anticipate that happening soon. If it does, the story will become much more difficult to find on ffnet, so I thought I'd give you a heads up in case it ever seems this story 'disappears' into thin air

* * *

Approaching the Inn

* * *

The rest of the day was relatively uneventful. They settled into their usual watch schedule that night, with Montaron going first, Aegis second, and Imoen third. Xzar had exhausted all his spells that day whilst fighting Gibberings, and collapsed into his bedroll the moment he'd unraveled it. He was sleeping like a baby long before Aegis brought him his dinner, and she smiled.

Although Xzar was usually creepy, he had a blissful sort of look on his face while he slept. With his wild graham hair and silly facepaint, he looked as harmless as a kitten. (To be fair, it must be remembered that cats were Aegis's favorite animal, she was able to compare a _great_ many things to kittens.)

Aegis knelt and tugged a blanket from the necromancer's pack. She flicked it out horizontally and let it settle around him, but was careful not to touch him. She was learning that Xzar did not much like to be touched, and was liable to react in bizarre but unfailingly loud ways to any such disturbance.

He shifted a little in his sleep and mumbled quietly. The ranger couldn't suppress another smile.

A shriek of surprise caused Aegis to jump in alarm and spin around (although it didn't faze Xzar in the slightest; he continued to sleep). She immediately caught sight of Imoen on the ground with a shortsword against her neck. The violet rogue was being held down by an equally baffled Montaron.

"Montaron!" Aegis cried in alarm, taking a step forward. Fortunately, it seemed that _this_ particular near-murder had been unintentional on the halfling's part.

"The devil?!" the halfling shouted, releasing Imoen and staring at her in surprise. Then he cursed again: "What the hells? I didn't even hear you leave!"

"Ow!" Imoen whined, sitting up and rubbing her neck. "What was that for?"

"Ye creeped up behind me, that's what for!" he hollared back maliciously. "When the hells did ye even leave the camp? I thought ye were a bandit or summet'."

Imoen blinked and gave a bemused smile. "What luck, I managed to sneak off to the bathroom without the halfling noticing me, only to fail while sneaking back in..."

Montaron lifted a brow. Then he cracked a grin. "Guess I'll just have to keep me eyes open a bit wider, eh?"

Imoen narrowed her eyes and gave a shrewd little grin. "You just _try_, little man. Just _try_. I've got knives, too."

Aegis sighed, glad that _this_ time Montaron hadn't actually been trying to kill either of them. She decided to ignore the rest of their banter, and turned to head off to sleep. Behind her, Montaron grinned, and his expression was at once filled with genuine humor and malice. Montaron seemed incapable of actually being happy without also being threatening. "Got a lot to learn before you're as good as _me_ girl," he told the violet rogue.

Imoen smiled sweetly. "I left the camp without you noticing, didn't I?"

The halfling frowned. Then he snorted and grumbled, and turned back to where he'd been sitting by the fire. Imoen blew a kiss after him, and that made him grumble even more.

* * *

They met several more travelers on the way to the Friendly Arm Inn, two of which Montaron attempted to rob. Both times he was unsuccessful, mostly due to the meddling of Aegis, and by the end of their third day of together the halfling was quite irate with her.

"They were just travelers," Aegis tried to persuade him. "It's not like they had much, and you could have tried pickpocketing them instead of openly threateningly them..."

Imoen whistled to herself at the mention of pickpocketing. Aegis shot her a glance. It seemed someone had gotten sticky fingers while the unfortunate travelers were trying to figure Aegis and Montaron out. Montaron would threaten them, Aegis would say, "What my halfling friend here _means_ to say is-", and then apparently Imoen would nick their things.

Aegis supposed she ought to look at the bright side of things. After all, things would have gone worse if Xzar had tried talking to any said passerbys. Fortunatly, he had been busy comparing various Gibbering organs in the background, and for the most part went unnoticed.

The halfling in question growled irritably at Aegis and didn't spare her a look. His demeanor was utterly black, and Aegis figured he was just waiting to reach the inn so that he could leave her company. She sighed and gave up trying to explain to him, and instead looked to Xzar. He was still examining Gibbering pieces.

"Having fun?"

"These spleens are just what I needed for my newest potion," Xzar mumbled, regarding the two dripping organs critically. "Although the one was mildly damaged by my Chill Touch..."

"How unfortunate," she chimed a little dryly, but smiled nonetheless. "Did you make those healing potions you offered us the other day?"

"Hmm? Yes," he confirmed, seeming a little more mentally stable now that his focus was drawn by this activity of his.

"Did any fauna-based products go into them?" she queried, dreading and yet curious as to the answer.

"No, those potions are dreadfully boring. They're mostly herbs. Sometimes I add dead mice for flavoring, but that's rarely quite as fun as some of my other potions."

"You'll have to forgive me for being relieved. So why did you pick these two spleens out of all the spleens we've seen thus far?"

He blinked at her, and tilted his head to the side. He almost walked into a tree and Aegis had to grab his arm and push him out of the way. He eeped, blinked at her, the tree, dawdled for a moment and then finally remembered what he'd been doing and resumed walking. "They're more yellow on the edges, with a good cyan streak down the center," he finally answered, "as you can see here. This means their owners consumed a great deal of a certain berry during their lives, and the result can be distilled into a useful essence."

"What do you plan on making with them?"

Xzar frowned. There were many possible reasons for his displeasure. Perhaps he was making something utterly and despicably awful. Perhaps he'd already _forgotten_ what he was going to make. Maybe he found her annoying, or perhaps he was just unused to anyone showing an interest in him. He might even have found it irritating that his haze of bizarre insanity was being questioned and made less chaotic. In any event, it was difficult for Aegis to decide what was going through the necromancer's head, so she just waited expectantly.

Xzar looked down and scuffed his foot lightly in the dirt, then looked at the sky, and then tilted his head in her direction again. He blinked large green eyes several times, as if bewildered by her, before at last answering. "Good hair soap. It locks in moisture."

Aegis opened her mouth to say something, closed it, shrugged, and smiled. "Okay. Let me know how it goes. My hair is always frizzled all over the place, and I've more split ends then I could put a name to."

"You name your hairs?" he asked in amazement.

"No, that was just an idiomatic expression."

"You're an idiot?"

Sometimes it was difficult to remember that Xzar was secretly brilliant. Aegis sighed. "No, you're just crazy."

"Hmph, well, you certainly throw insults around a lot!"

"No, no, that was a compliment," she corrected, and in large part it was. As disturbing as Xzar was, his ramblings were almost... _silly_. They were strangely pleasant to listen to.

"Oh." He smiled. "Thank you. You're a bloodthirsty murderer."

Aegis jumped and stared at him. "What?"

"With the Gibberings," he explained. "You really love to kill them, don't you?"

The color drained from Aegis's face as she recalled many unplesant memories, some old, some new. "Um." She looked away, and said nothing else. One of her hands moved inside her torn armor, wrapping around a lock of silver hair and squeezing tightly. It's presence eased her and she took a steadying breath.

Xzar watched her curiously for a moment before looking back the Gibbering spleens and dismissing the matter. Monatron just grumbled to himself.

"Hey, is that the inn?" Imoen called. "I think I see a big stone tower. We must almost be there!"

"Thank the gods of shadow," Montaron muttered hatefully. "If I had to spend one more night with ye women..."

"At least we don't snore!" Imoen giggled, and flicked a coin to the halfling. "Here ya go, I nicked it off the last traveler you molested." Montaron blinked and eyed her. He grunted and pocketed the coin.

"Was that a bribe not to get offended?" he growled, mildly amused despite himself.

"You bet your short little arse it was. So, what you thinking we should eat tonight? Steak? Ribs?"

"Beer," Montaron snorted.

Aegis piped up. "I heard the B-word! Beer? Where?"

"The _inn_ Aegis!" Imoen laughed.

"Oh." The ranger deflated slightly, before realizing the inn was close at hand and would likely have all kinds of splendid alcohol. "Oh! Huzzah! Beer, sweet beer, I'm comming to you! Wait for mommy! Oh, I can smell it now, a big old tankard filled with honey golden liquid, frothing, bitter, ahhhhhh!"

The halfling glanced back at her for the first time in the past five hours. Then he looked back at Imoen "She drinks?"

"Ha!" Imoen grinned. "You just wait and see, master halfling."

Aegis was already absorbed in the idea of alcohol, as she evidenced thusly:

_"Beer, beer, beer, tiddly beer, beer, beer! Eh!  
__A long time ago, way back in history,  
__When all there was to drink was nothing but cups of tea,__  
Along came a man by the name of Charlie Mopps,  
And he invented a wonderful drink and he made it out of hops, Eh!"_

_

* * *

  
_

The Friendly Arm Inn was more of a small castle than an Inn. The main structure was several stories high with towers, crenelation, and arrow slits. It was surrounded by a sturdy wall and a moat, and these walls enclosed not only a temple but also several houses.

It was getting late by this hour of the day, and Aegis could already hear drinking songs echoing cheerily from the tavern's main floor. She threw her arms in the air and whooped, which cause the guards to confront them, and when they found nothing awry she hopped merrily towards the doors of the inn, followed by a giggling Imoen and a slightly more baffled halfling. Xzar was looking around curiously, and for an unnerving moment Imoen saw him study a few children that ran by. But he soon lost interest and followed the rest of the group without causing a dreadful scene, and all in all it seemed the grand conclusion to a long day.

"Hi, friend," called a voice to Aegis's left, and a man stepped towards her. She would have ignored the soft voice if not for the sudden motion and so paused in her delighted skipping to eye the speaker.

Standing before her was a man about her height, dressed in traveling robes and leaning upon a walking staff. Although he was smiling at her, there was something about his eyes that didn't sit right with Aegis. "Erm, can I help you?" she queried, mildly irritated that her drinking splurge had been postponed.

"Yes, I was wondering, would you perhaps go by the name of Aegis, of Candlekeep?"

Aegis blinked. Something in her instinctively shouted for her to lie... but another part of her recalled Gorion's letter. She and Imoen were here to find friends of the old wizard... and this person also might have been of the wizarding sort.

Behind her, Xzar stiffened. Although Aegis could not see him, he grunted and suddenly dashed towards her.

"Yes..." she said slowly. "Excuse me, but do I know you?"

"Oh no, I'm afraid you do not- not yet, anyway," he murmured sweetly. "I am Tarnesh, and mine is the last face you will ever see."

Energy burst from his fingertips, and suddenly there were four of him, all moving around her. Aegis eeped and jumped backwards, drawing her axe. The four faces of the man grinned, and then he was casting another spell, bolts of energy forming in his hand. Imoen shouted in surprise, and immediately several guards were whirling towards them and advancing on their position. They were all too slow. Violet energy whirled through the air, arcing towards Aegis like snakes.

"Oh shit-"

_Pain_. Each one stabbed into her like a crossbow bolt (not that she knew exactly what getting hit by a crossbow bolt would feel like), burying into her skin, knocking the wind out of her. She choked and staggered backwards, spitting up blood.

A cord of green energy whirled past her cheek, tearing into one of four mages, tightening, and then draining from him. All four images of the mage convulsed in pain. Xzar (for presumably Xzar had cast the spell) had just marked out which of the four mages was real.

Ternesh gasped and his next spell faltered. Imoen had just gotten within shortbow range, and she took Xzar's lead. Her arrow streaked through the air, burying into the true mage's shoulder and causing blood to spurt. Montaron wasn't far behind, ignoring the fake wizards' faux images and charging straight for the genuine article. His shortsword dipped deep into the man's back.

For all the might of his spells, Tarnesh was just a wizard. He was not meant to endure such damage. He gurgled, choked up blood, and then collapsed. He was dead by the time the guards reached him, and his three images faded away into smoke.

"Aegis!" Imoen cried, running past the fallen body, towards her wounded sister.

Aegis was seeing stars. She stumbled backwards, tripped, and fell into someone with an 'oof!' Whoever it was grabbed her about the arms and held her upright, and when Imoen regained her side her vision was stabilizing. "Aegis, Aegis, are you alright?" she called worriedly, shouldering her bow and pausing before the ranger.

Aegis blinked. "Ow." She had the presence of mind to wonder who had caught her and tilted her head back to see Xzar's face above her, slightly amused, slightly concerned, and slightly oblivious. She decided the slight concern was good enough for her and weakly tried to regain her footing. It didn't precisely work and she still had to lean heavily on the wizard's shoulder. "What the... _hells_ was that all about?" she muttered, clutching at her chest and looking to Imoen. "He tried to _kill_ me!"

One of the guards stepped up to her, and eyed her up and down. "We were hoping you could tell us. Are you wounded, miss?"

"_Ow_. Yes," she groaned, spitting out some residual blood from her mouth.

"I surmise he might have been an assassin," Xzar cooed delightedly. "Tell me dear, have you any enemies?"

"Hell no-" she snarled and then paused, thinking of a black-armored knight and a dead wizard. Her face paled and she looked to Imoen. "Maybe," she amended, looking back at the guard. "I'm sorry, I didn't..."

"You have nothing to be sorry about, miss. Violence is not tolerated in the walls of the Inn, but we all saw the mage attack you, and you're clear in our book. I'd be careful if I were you, though. Inn's filled with some shady patrons. If you're attracting unwanted attention, then I say you need to keep your eyes open." Aegis grimaced. "The temple's just to the right there- tell the priestess Gerald sent you and she'll fix you up, courtesy of the inn. Goodday to you."

The guard departed and Aegis finally managed to stand on her own. She nodded her thanks to Xzar and wiped blood from her mouth. "Damn, I feel like shit. Where's this temple?"

"Here, come on," Imoen called, hurrying up and giving Aegis a shoulder to lean on. Although she'd just finally managed to stand without aid, the world was starting to spin again and Aegis was grateful to have some support. "I see the temple, I'll take you there. One step at a time, now..."

* * *

Phew. For a second I thought Xzar was going to go after those children!


	7. Mission Accomplished

I love BG

* * *

Mission Accomplished

* * *

Aegis grunted as she stepped out of the temple, stretching her arms behind her head and trying to work out some of the kinks that healing magics always seemed to leave behind. Xzar was waiting for her and Imoen at the temple entrance, and straightened up upon seeing them.

During the course of her healing, it occurred to her that Xzar might have saved her life that day. By accident or design he had correctly guessed which of Tarnesh's images had been genuine, allowing the party to focus all of their attacks on the real thing. She wasn't certain why Xzar had been closer to her than Imoen or Montaron, but she was grateful, and felt it necessary to show her appreciation.

So upon seeing the necromancer, Aegis smiled and promptly hugged him.

Every nerve in the man's body stiffened, till he was rigid as a board. He opened his mouth, and shrieked at the top of his lungs (in a very feminine voice), "STOP TOUCHING ME!"

Aegis let go. Xzar stumbled backwards, tripped over his robe, stumbled, fell over a fence, and ended up falling backwards into a pig pen. Aegis and Imoen shared a look. Then Aegis came up to the fence and peered down at him. Xzar was still stiff as a board, covered in pig waste and mud, and had an utterly miserable expression on his face. His feet were still propped up on the fence.

"Dirty," he mumbled unhappily, and as he did so a pig came up to peruse his hair.

Aegis couldn't repress a laugh. She waved the pig away and reached down, grabbing the necromancer by both arms and pulling him back over the fence. He debated himself slightly, and looked about ready to complain, but by the time he thought to do so he was again standing on the correct side of the fence and Aegis was no longer touching him.

He seemed to have shrunk several inches, he was so hunched up and cowed. He looked up at her with pale green eyes and pouted. "Dirty, dirty, dirty," he whimpered, and cringed when Aegis's raccoon leaned down to smell him.

"Come on, you can take a bath in the inn," she promised, grabbing his robe by the sleeve and tugging him gently towards the inn. This kind of contact seemed more acceptable to the unhappy wizard, for he shuffled after her without complaint. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. I meant to say: I'm very thankful you were there to help me against that mage."

He seemed to brighten slightly at this. Montaron was nowhere to be seen, and Aegis assumed he was already inside, drinking. As Aegis was the one who loved alcohol most in the party, she found this to be quite an injustice, and was determined to drink twice as much to make up for the delay.

But first thing came first; poor Xzar needed _someone_ to take care of him.

* * *

It only took Aegis a few copper pieces to buy a decent robe for Xzar to wear while his current clothes were washed, but she ended up spending two solid hours trying to convince Xzar to actually go into his room and _take _his bath (during which the water had to be re-heated three times). The inn workers didn't seem to mind; Aegis paid for every new batch of water. Her raccoon had long ago tired of this silly argument and had gone off to Aegis's room to sleep and eat walnuts.

What the necromancer's problem with bathing was, Aegis wasn't certain. Xzar had an utterly maddening way of leading her through logic games (or illogical games, as the case may be) for a whole of fifteen minutes before she realized he'd gone radically off topic and tried to bring him back to the notion of bathing.

At least she managed to conclude that Xzar was simply dead set against removing his own clothing, even when completely alone. This fit with the idea that the necromancer was somewhat paranoid, but at that point Aegis was beyond caring. After two hours, she dragged the necromancer into his room and pushed him fully clothed into the bath tub. Xzar shrieked , sputtered and tried to climb out, so Aegis grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and shoved him back in.

"Xzar," she snapped. "You need to-"

He tried to get out again, water was sloshing everywhere. She grabbed him by the hair, and once more threw him back in.

"You-"

He dove this time. She grabbed him by the arms and forced him down. At this point it wasn't so much a question of getting him clean as a matter of principle. She'd put too much effort into this to give up.

"_Xzar_," she growled.

The necromancer froze and looked up at her with big eyes.

"You're very, very dirty, Xzar," she said suddenly, latching onto the mage's strange preoccupation with dirt (or at least certain kinds of dirt) in an effort to make him listen.

He frowned, shrinking down.

"Covered in all sorts of nasty dryad twigs, child boogers, pig filth and sweat from the brows of hardworking peasant farmers!"

He quailed and ducked into the water up to his nose. Aegis's mouth broke into a smile. She produced his fresh clothes and set them slowly, deliberately down beside the tub, releasing his arms. "These are for you. Try not to get them wet or dirty. You need to change clothes so that we can wash your green robes. Okay? "

"But-"

"They're _very_ dirty."

He swallowed whatever he was going to say and was quiet. Aegis eyed him critically a moment more, to see if he'd protest again, and then waved and turned, leaving the room. Xzar watched her go, and then looked at the clothing. He sighed.

"Oh. I got my spleens wet," he pouted. "But then I suppose they were already muddy..."

Aegis was dying for a pint by that point. Absolutely dying. But as she'd just argued with the wizard for two hours and then thrown him fully clothed into a tub of water, she knew that the decent thing to do was to wait for him to finish bathing. With Xzar she presumed this could take several hours or more. And afterward he might streak naked through the inn, and she'd have to catch him and drag him back to his room, and well that would all be easier if she stayed by his door and didn't inebriate herself.

With a regretful sigh she sat down in the common room in center of the floor. It seemed like she wouldn't be getting any ale that night.

Xzar surprised her by emerging fully dressed with his hair combed only fifteen minutes later. If it weren't for the outlandish tattoos on his face he'd even seem presentable. She blinked and stood up to greet him. This was so anticlimactic that she was sure something else must have gone awry, and so waited for the necromancer to reveal what had happened.

"You didn't buy me any underwear," he whined. "Mine were soggy." Then his face brightened. "But you dropped _your_ pack in the room so I took-"

Aegis facepalmed. "Okay," was all she said, as several nobles turned to look at them. "Okay. Let's just go get something to eat."

His face brightened more, and he seemed to forget the negative aspects of the bathing episode. "Okay," he chimed, and proceeded to skip towards the stairs. Aegis sighed and followed him. At least she was going to get her ale.

* * *

Montaron was enjoying the company of several other halflings. They were all drinking at eating well, ribbing eachother nastily and telling black jokes. They were all of them rogues, and not one of them had refrained from stealing coins from another during the course of their meal. They were laughing about the plights of the taller folk, and being generally mocking towards women in general. One of them made the mistake of saying he could drink anyone present under the table.

An ale mug slammed down on their table, disturbing their humor. The halflings turned as one to see a human ranger, female and twice as broad as any decent female ought to be, with crazy blonde hair and a complexion too hard and thin to interest a halfling.

"You're on," Aegis declared, and sat down despite the hostile glares she was receiving. "Fifty gold says I can drink you under the table. And let's see, there's six of you. Three hundred gold says I can drink you _all_ under, _one at a time_."

Evil grins gleamed. Montaron lifted a brow. It was shaping up to be an interesting night.

"Th-th-that's her," Kalid stated, more assuredly this time. He'd watched for the last twenty minutes as the blonde ranger drank much more alcochol than he would have deemed safe. Now she was singing bawdy drinking songs with the roughest looking group in the tavern. But the halflings suddenly didn't seem so threatening anymore. They were all drunk, singing and hollering loudly for more food and ale, as if pacified by her rambunctious demeanor. As much as Khalid might have wanted to dismiss her, as unimpressive and churlish as she might have seemed, an uncanny voice in the back of his head _insisted_. This was the girl they were looking for. "It has to be her. Sh-should we ap-proach her now?"

"I don't know, I'm still not convinced," Jaheira said slowly, lips pursed. "She looks more like a thug than an acolyte. And aside from that, where is _our_ friend?"

"A-anything c-could have happened on the road. All the m-more reason to ask her," he said, turning to his wife with wide eyes. "Y-you noticed her the m-moment she entered the inn. She f-fits Gorion's description." He blushed. "G-gorion even briefly mentioned a-alcohol, and y-you said yourself it s-seemed like he was c-covering up a larger story."

_"As I went home on Monday night as drunk as drunk could be  
I saw a horse outside the door where my old horse should be  
Well, I called me wife and I said to her: Will you kindly tell to me  
Who owns that horse outside the door where my old horse should be?"_

Jaheria shot him a look. "I didn't expect the story to enjoy striking up drinking competitions with unsavory bar patrons and then singing about infidelity, busty maidens, and the pleasure of being 'as drunk as drunk could be'."

Khalid blushed more, and took another glance in the blonde ranger's direction. Perhaps Jaheira was right. This woman seemed a tad boisterous for someone who had grown up all their life within the safe walls of Candlekeep, and under the nose of such an overprotective parent as Gorion.

By the time Imoen realized Aegis was down on the main floor of the inn, it was because the other woman was singing loudly and well on her way to getting roaring drunk, Imoen was happy for her, but decided to snag her gold purse before he halflings in her vicinity could rob her blind. Then she made herself scarce, so that she could keep an eye on Aegis from afar.

It wasn't the halflings that worried Imoen- Aegis was a sociable person and could make friends with almost anyone- but Imoen's big sister had been attacked once that day already. The violet rogue wanted to be on the look out if another danger was coming.

She kept her eyes peeled and scanned the room over and over again. She watched whenever bar patrons left or entered.

Khalid sighed and turned to his own food, eating his bread and cheese in silence. To be honest he was worried about Gorion. The old wizard should have reached the inn a day ago, and perhaps Khalid was chasing leads where there were none to be found. Gorion would make his way to the inn in his own good time.

"Hello!" a bright voice chirped from near his shoulder. Khalid nearly leaped out of his seat. Jahiera, who had been similarly surprised, whirled to face the newcommer. They found themselves looking at a short, violet-clad girl with a silly smile on her face and happy brown eyes. "I'm sorry, I was looking at your ears! I've never seen an elf before. You are elves, right?"

Khalid opened his mouth as if to say something, and then closed it again. His heart was pounding from that mild surprise. "Erm. H-half elves," he responded at last. "I-I'm sorry, d-do we know y-you?"

The girl seemed to perk up at the sound of Khalid's speech impediment and he winced slightly, looking to his wife for support. Jahiera's brow furrowed. "Well?" she asked a little harshly.

"Well I noticed you were watching my friend, and she got attacked just outside the inn, so I'm paranoid!" the girl chimed happily. "She's the loud one with the crazy blonde hair, drinking with the disreputable halflings! So I was wondering, could I perhaps ask your names?"

Jahiera quirked a brow. She glanced briefly at her husband as if to ask a silent question, and then possibly thinking better of it looked back to the violet-clad girl. "I am Jahiera," she answered slimply. She wasn't much for games. "This is my husband, Khalid."

The girl's face brightened immediately. "Oh good. I was worried for a second. So _you're_ the people Gorion told us to meet! I'm very pleased to meet you!"

Both half-elves perked up at the sound of the wizards name, their eyes widening slightly. "P-pardon," murmured Khalid worriedly. "D-do you k-know Gorion?"

The girl nodded and then frowned. She glanced back at her blonde-haired companion, and then looked back to the two half-elves. "Um. Well. I _did_. My name's Imoen. Could I sit down?"

Jahiera and Khalid exchanged a look, and then quickly made room for her to sit at their table. "Imoen," Jaheira repeated. "Gorion mentioned that name in his letters."

"I'm Aegis's friend," Imoen clarified, sitting down and folding her hands in her lap. Both elves seemed to straighten slightly at the confirmation that the rowdy blonde ranger was indeed the very Aegis they'd been looking for.

"Then g-goodness child, what are you two doing h-here a-alone?" Khalid asked. "Wh-where is Gorion? He d-did not mention t-that _you_ would be c-coming."

"Um, well I wasn't supposed to. I sort of snuck out after them. I couldn't let Aegis go on a huge adventure without me, now could I? And stay at home washing the inn? No way! I knew old Gorion would forgive me. And me and Aegis aren't alone! We made friends on the way," Imoen said slowly, looking at her hands.

Khalid swallowed hard. "And G-gorion?"

"They got attacked just before I found them," Imoen said quietly. "Aegis got away, but Mister Gorion didn't. It was awful. There was this huge evil looking knight, dressed in spike-covered armor. He had a wizard lady with him and two ogres."

She looked up at the elves, and was happy(?) to see that they were both pale as ghosts and hanging on her every word. It seemed that they really _were _the people Gorion had told Aegis to meet.

"I found Aegis the next morning and we buried him. Aegis told me he'd said that if they were separated, she needed to get to the Friendly Arm Inn, and meet up with two friends: Khalid and Jaheira. He said she needed to stay abroad, and moving. So... well... here we are. Ready for a life-changing adventure," Imoen smiled weakly, ironically, but nevertheless charmingly.

Jahiera murmured something to herself in elfin and looked down for a moment, as if in prayer. Khalid sat back in his seat, shocked by the news that his old comarade was dead. But then he sat forward again. "I c-can only imagine what you a-are going through. T-to lose... forgive me, b-but Gorion was also a v-very good friend to _us_."

"Do you have any idea why a spike-covered knight wanted to kill him or Aegis?" Imoen asked hopefully. "We're still baffled."

"I'm afraid not," Jaheira answered. "Gorion was very... _unspecific_ in his letters, and we always recieved the feeling that he was hiding something important. Writing would have been an insecure method of communicating sensitive information, and if he had meant to tell us the truth of his secrets, he would have done so face to face. Now it seems whatever mysteries he kept have gone to the grave with him..."

"Hey, look, that's why I had to come talk to you before Aegis noticed you were watching her," Imoen said. "Please try not to talk to her about it more than necessary, she was really close to the old man and well, that first day... I wasn't sure I could get her to leave him. It was _awful. _I've never seen her cry like that, and I've known her since we were toddlers."

"I s-see w-why she is d-drinking," Khalid murmured understandingly.

Imoen blinked and smiled. She decided not to mentioned Aegis' drinking habits for the moment. "She's been okay, as long as she doesn't think about him too much. She just keeps her head focused on whatever it is we're doing. So what did you plan to do once you'd met up with Gorion?"

The two shared another painful look. Jaheira spoke. "We were planning- still plan- on traveling to Naschel to investigate the iron crisis. Although the road is dangerous-"

"That's no problem," Imoen assured her. "Look we can't go back to Candlekeep. Everything, everyone we've ever known, disappeared in one night. Gorion said we could trust you guys, and also said we had to keep on the move. And I know Aegis, the best thing for her is going to be to focus on a goal. She always wanted to be a great hero. So we _definitely _should stay with you."

Jahiera smiled. "I was going to say that although the road is dangerous, you would be in safe company. We will _not_ be leaving the foster child of our dear friend alone on the road when spike-covered knights are chasing her."

Imoen grinned. Then she blinked. "Naschel. Hey, we met two friends on the road. They _also_ wanted to go to Naschel, to investigate the iron crisis. We told them we might not be able to make the trip south, but that we'd know once we got here. Well, now we know! I'll have to tell them that they can still travel with us."

Jahiera lifted a brow. "Really? Interesting. The problems in Naschel are drawing many adventurers. I'd like to meet these friends of yours."

Imoen smiled and opened her mouth to say something. Then she recalled exactly who she'd been spending the last two days traveling with.

Somehow, she didn't think Jahiera would appreciate Xzar's particular brand of crazy...

Or the fact that Montaron kept trying to rob random passerbys...

The situation was starting to look more complicated than Imoen first thought.

* * *

Dirty, dirty, dirty...


	8. In the Vicinity of the Inn

By the time Aegis was done drinking, five halflings were under the table and she and Montoron were laughing and roaring like old friends. It was only a few minutes after Montoron stumbled up to bed that Aegis finally eased herself up from the table and made to stagger for the staircase. While heavily inebriated, she still noticed Imoen flagging her down. After a moment of drunken indecision she headed over to the corner where her sister was, and look curiously at the table's other inhabitants.

"Aegis! These are the people we've been looking for," Imoen laughed. "Meet Jaheira and Khalid!" Khalid gave a small wave, and Jahiera nodded slightly. Aegis looked from one to the other, and blinked several times. Then she laughed.

"Ahm so c'mpletely wasted I can barely tell what d'rection is up. D'ya mind if I sleep first, introduce later?" Khalid blushed slightly but the unsteady ranger just beamed a charming smile. "Ey, it's not so bad, I didn't git in a fight this time! I'll be fine come mornin'… Uhm." She turned towards the stairs, and with what she retained of a rational it occurred to her that she did not have the coordination to surmount them. "Uh, Imoen, lil help?"

Imoen giggled and rushed up to her surrogate sister, giving her an arm to lean on. "I'll be right back!" she called to the two elves, and then assisted the blonde ranger up the stairs.

Jaheira lifted a brow, and gave a hard-pressed smile. The ranger wasn't exactly the sort of child they'd been expecting. Khalid tilted his head to the side. "What did she mean about not getting in a fight?"

"The drunk say things they do not necessarily mean."

Aegis was unconscious almost the moment she hit her pillows. Imoen chuckled and tucked her in. She made sure there was a bucket available come morning, and then skipped back down the stairs. She spent the next few hours talking with the half elves.

The night ended well.

* * *

Aegis sat at the table that morning and groaned pitifully, her head in her arms, her hands pressed firmly over her ears. Montaron laughed and elbowed her good naturedly. Although this made Aegis consider vomiting all over him, she was noticeably relieved that she seemed to be getting along with the halfling again. "Ha! Nice one lass! You drank with the dwarves last night!"

Aegis moaned. Jaheria sat across from them, her lips pursed in a disapproving smile. It was fortunate that Aegis was too busy being hung over to notice, or she might have been shamed by the expression on the elf's face. Khalid was far less judgmental, and he chuckled, reaching over to gently pat her back.

"There, t-there," he said. "You were raised in a church all your life after all."

"What!" Montaron gasped, laughing harder. "Raised in a church? Candlekeep then? Ha! Girl, where the hells did you learn to drink like that? Hid a few brews from the preachers?"

Imoen laughed "You bet!" she agreed sunnily. Khalid blinked at her. Imoen blinked "I mean, uh, no, of course not! Wouldn't dream of it! We were both good little church girls, honest!"

"Ooohhhhhhh." Aeigis moaned.

Khalid glanced at Montaron in a disapproving fashion but smiled genuinely at Aegis and stood to order her some toast- or something else that might be soft on her stomach.

"Aww, poor Aegy," Imoen patted her back gently. "Don't worry, at least it can't get any worse-"

"Good morning!" Xzar's voice was high and unusually effeminate for the purpose of this exclamation, and Aegis winced. The necromancer hopped up to their table and sat down on Aegis's other side, as far from the two elf-bloods as he could get. "My I'm hungry this morning. Do you think they have any fish heads, Monty?"

The halfling grunted in annoyance at his traveling companion. "No, you fool. And stop making such a racket." Jaheira frowned. Imoen laughed.

"Oops, nevermind about that not getting worse stuff," she said with a wink at Aegis.

"But Monty, I _like _fish heads!" Xzar's shrill voice was tormenting Aegis's poor brain. To her misfortune, Montaron continued to argue with him, resulting in several more high-pitched, indignant responses before Aegis finally reached up and and grabbed Xzar by the collar of his robs, jerking his head down to her level.

"Xzar," Aegis growled. "You're making my head hurt."

The necromancer stared at her in surprise. He blinked several times before black-painted lips curved into the shape of an 'o'. "Your head hurts?" he asked cheerily, and promptly reached into one of his various pouches, ignoring the fact that Aegis was still holding his head near the level of the table. "Why didn't you say so? I have a potion for that!"

Aegis blinked once, and then twice, uncomprehending. Hair was in her face and blood was pounding in her ears as she slowly released Xzar. He rummaged around for a moment more and then turned and proudly placed a vial into her hand. Aegis looked at it, and then at Xzar. At last she looked to Montaron, who shrugged. He made it a point never to drink any of Xzar's potions.

Aegis looked back at the vial and then sighed and downed it. Immediately the whirling clouds of agony that swirled through her brain began to disperse. In a moment the pounding in her head had ceased, leaving her with only a mild headache. She rubbed one of her temples and pushed hair from her face. After a moment she looked up at Xzar, who was watching her expectantly.

"I love you," she mumbled happily, which caused Imoen to break out laughing and Montaron to sputter and cackle. Xzar blinked, and it was clear to anyone who was observing him that she might as well have just spoken in druidic. Seeing the matter was settled, however, he turned about and stole the food Khalid had brought for her.

Khalid blinked. "I beg your pardon sir, but that was for-"

"No, no," Aegis protested, sitting up straight. "Let him have it. He gave me a headache potion." She smiled and pushed some gold across the counter to Khalid. "I can at least forgive him for having absolutely no idea where or who he is for at another five minutes.

Khalid looked at her in surprise. Clearly he would also refuse to take potions from this man, and while Aegis didn't blame him, she was thankful that her hangover had altogether subsided. "You travel with interesting company," he noted quietly, although he made a point to look only at Xzar and not at Montaron. Jaheria was not so frugal in her application of 'interesting', and glared at the halfling openly.

Clearly there were going to be problems down the line. Aegis sighed and tried to snip them off at the bud. "Yes. The wizard's off his rocker. Even Montaron will tell you that."

"Even? I'd be the first one to tell ye that!" the halfling snapped.

"Daww, he's not so bad," Imoen giggled, nudging Montaron "At least he's relatively harmless. You tried to kill me."

Montaron snorted "Damn straight I did! And would have too- teach you to sneak around the campfire while I'm on watch!"

Jaheria grunted "Enough," she snapped. "Let's eat and leave this place. This conversation is getting old."

Montaron snorted, slightly ruffled. Imoen passed him a gold under the table, a mute bribe for him to keep from taking offense. Montaron took it with a hairy foot, and smiled with saccharine charm across the table. "Of course. Breakfast. Mm."

* * *

It was immediately clear that there were two groups:

1) Jahiera + Khalid

2) Montaron + Xzar

Neither wanted anything to do with the other.

Aegis glanced back at her traveling partners. They had decided to spend some time in the area around the Friendly Arm Inn gathering supplies and money for the trip south, and Jaheira wasn't in a particularly good mood about it. Neither was Montaron. Khalid and Xzar had taken the delay much less personally. The group had wadded through a collecting of roving hobgoblins northwest of the inn, and was about to head south in pursuit of an ogre. Something had just attracted Imoen's eye, and the group decided to stop for a drink of water and a bite of food while she climbed up an old tree.

"What is she doing?" Jahiera growled irritably to her husband in elfish. "And why are we waiting for this?"

Aegis sighed over her water canteen. Jahiera was starting to gnaw on her nerves. Montaron was a bad apple and Xzar was extraordinarily insane, but at least neither of them came off as patronizing. Khalid, however, she liked immediately... and she supposed she'd just have to put up with it. Maybe things were just really bad in the south. Maybe Jahiera would mellow out a bit when they were finally heading south to Bergost. Or...

Aegis tilted her head to the side, wondering of Jahiera was irritated at following _Aegis_ around, rather than Aegis following _her_.

After a moment, she looked back at the woman. "I speak, read, and write Elf," she told the older woman. "We're waiting on Imoen."

Jahiera simultaneously bristled and backed off. Khalid blushed heavily and reached out to touch his wife's shoulder. When he spoke it was softly, personally, and to Jahiera alone. "Jahiera, my love... I-I know you grieve for our lost friend... But do not let it embitter you. T-They are but children. They are right to p-prepare for the journey. And they know each other better than we know them. Besides, this is their first time out of Candelkeep. Be gentle towards them."

The druid said nothing.

"This is a waste of time," Montaron grumbled. "Two half elves and a halfling in the party and we ain't seen shit up in that tree. What's that little twat think-"

A delighted and mischievous cackle sounded from up in the tree. Aegis shook her canteen and was upset to find it mostly empty. "Find anything?" she asked while peering inside it. She'd have to use this as a marker for rationing water (and booze, for that was what she had in her canteen) for the upcoming trip.

"You bet! Catch me!"

Aegis jumped, startled. She dropped her canteen and lifted her arms just in time to catch a petite violet projectile as it burst out of the leafy canopy. Imoen gave a squeal of delight, grinning at her surrogate sister and then examining an object in her hands. Aegis grunted. "One day, you are going to get the shock of your life when I decide not to catch you."

"Oh don't be ridiculous!" Imoen laughed as Aegis set her upright and then stooped to retrieve her- now probably empty- canteen. The blonde pouted at it. When rationing, did one usually have to plan for small bubbly purple monsters?

"So what did we all wait for you to climb up in a tree for?" she grumbled.

Imoen grinned and held up a small ring victoriously. "I think it's a band of Wizardry!" she cooed. "We'll have to get it identified, it's magic for sure!"

Montaron perked up and came over quickly. "The hell it is, you couldn't'a seen a ring o' anythin' up there, much less known it was magic. Give it here!"

Imoen pursed her lips, but seeing as Xzar was the only mage in the group and Imoen wasn't much for being offended, her irritated look transformed into an amused laugh, and she leaned over to place the ring squarely in Montaron's palm. "Oh don't be all bubbleheaded! See for yourself!"

Montaron glanced at her but turned the ring over in his fingers. His grimace of irritation turned into a look of surprised disbelief. Jahiera and Khalid had come closer. "Blimy. Well, I'll be. It's like the lil tart said."

Imoen stuck out her tongue. "Told ya!" she laughed. "And you _doubted__ me!"_

"How the devil did you see this?" Montaron exclaimed in surprise, looking first at Imoen, who shrugged laughingly, and then to Aegis.

Aegis shook her canteen and, without looking up, said, "Maybe she's part dragon." She looked inside. Definitely empty. "That would explain a lot, actually."

"It was a thing less'n an inch across high up in a tree!"

"I just get a tingle when something's waiting for me to find it!" Imoen laughed. "I lived all my life in Candlekeep, with magic goodies hidden everywhere. I had to learn to sniff em out!"

Montaron wasn't sure whether to be insulted or awestruck. After a moment he handed the ring back over to her- magic rings were a dangerous thing to meddle with without a proper identification. He was almost respectful about it. "Remind me t' borrow that nose o' yers then next time I'm "visitin'" th' nobility."

Imoen laughed. "If it _is_ a band of Wizardry, are we selling it, or giving to Xzar?"

The party turned about to look at their Necromancer, who was busy trying to coax a rabbit out of its burrow by murmuring soft reassurances that all he wanted was its lungs. Montaron gave a disturbed grimace.

"We made need to take a vote when the time comes," Jahiera said diplomatically after a moment. Aegis finally looked up from her Canteen.

"It depends: will it help him make headache potions?"


	9. The Trouble With Ogres

Aegis sat quietly at the table. It was early in the morning, and she had not drank the evening before. The party had gotten back late to the Inn, and in quite a state. Currently she was nursing a cup of hot coffee, and wondering if she'd ever woken up this early before in her entire life.

Yesterday they'd set out to kill an Ogre and recover a belt.

* * *

The monster was _huge_, as big as Aegis remembered. She'd only ever seen Ogres once before in her life, and that had been the night that... the night that... Her body locked up. She stared in horror at the looming monstrosity, with its yellowed (jaundiced?) skin and its thick leather armor. It bellowed something in a language she didn't understand, and then Khalid and Jahiera were rushing past her, Jahiera with her staff, Khalid with sword and shield.

Aegis stood frozen. She awatched as the monster's heavy flail decended once with a masterful sweep. Khalid lifted his shield to take the blow, but it sent him flying back a good three feet. Jahiera swung her staff across the monster's midsection. It barely noticed, bringing its weapon around to backhand her out of the way. The flail connected with her shoulder, and Aegis saw blood fly in slow motion. Jahiera jerked so violently that it was a wonder her neck didn't snap. The blow sent her flying, and Khalid shouted her name.

Montaron had picked a bad time to wind up behind the ogre. It smelled him, smelled his breath, smelled the food he had just eaten. It whirled about, ignoring the arrows Imoen was firing off into its hide. It stiff armed him with its unoccupied forearm, almost at the same time it hit Jahiera. Montaron was a lot lighter than Jahiera, and when he slammed straight into a nearby rock it was clear he'd been stunned. Aegis stood, staring, as the ogre followed him, lifting its weapon.

She was going to watch him die.

She thought of her father, the blade running him through, his blood rippling through the air in slow motion. A strange part of her was fascinated. A strange part of her wanted to see this.

She heard the sounds of arcane magic, and then Xzar had slipped forward. He risked life and limb, for what purpose? It was odd. Xzar seemed selectively oblivious to fear. He reached out and grabbed at the ogre, sending his best Chill Touch through the monstrous frame. The ogre roared. Khalid leaped in to try and defend the caster. Imoen's arrows weren't getting through its hide and she'd dropped her bow. She must have been rummaging for her wand, but couldn't find it. The flail came down on Khalid's sword this time, tearing through the metal and nearly taking off the elf's head. He was battled away. Jahiera was trying to heal herself. Montaron was still down. Xzar reached out with another chill touch.

The ogre ignored the pain. He grabbed at the necromancer, seized his entire torso in one massive hand, and hoisted the frail man off the ground. A vicious grin, a grin that reminded her of Montaron but far more powerful, spread across the ogre's face. He began to squeeze.

Aegis was conscious of Xzar's not-so-ridiculous-or-girlish shrieking.

The next thing she knew, she was standing over the butchered corpse of the ogre, drenched from head to toe in blood, breathing heavily, with her left shoulder dislocated and thick lacerations up and down her left side. Her axe was squeezed tightly in one hand, and the remains of Khalid's sword were grasped in the other. Imoen was grabbing at her good arm. The ogre had been badly hamstrung on one leg, was missing the foot of the other, and had been eviscerated and cleaved belly to collarbone by a collection of axeblows. One arm was missing halfway up the forarm, the other was clearly dislocated and bruised.

"Aegis!" the violet girl was crying. "Aegis, it's dead!" Aegis stumbled slightly to the side, and Imoen clutched at her even tighter. She girl looked up at her face, and realized that her sister had just snapped back to reality. "Aegis!?"

The blonde looked around, breathing hard, numb to the pain in her body. Montaron must have been particularly close to the action- which surprised her, given his selfish disposition- because he was bloody and breathing hard. Jahiera and Khalid were together; perhaps he had shielded her while she struck with her staff. All of them were staring at her, the elves with wide eyes, the halfling with respectful distance. She turned her head in the other direction and noticed Xzar. He was seated on the ground where the ogre had dropped him, a curious expression on his face. He was clearly the only one present that she hadn't unnerved in some way. Actually, he seemed intrigued. And though he was wincing and clutching his side, he was- in Aegis's estimation- relatively unharmed.

She slowly looked back to Imoen, who searched her face in alarm. "Everyone's okay?" Aegis asked. Imoen nodded. "I'm sorry," the ranger muttered, and then promptly blacked out.

* * *

Aegis woke up to find a temporary camp had been made. She was laid out on a grassy patch some distance from the ogre, and Jahiera was kneeling by her side. She had a bowl of fruit- berries- in her hand, and had apparently been feeding them to the unconscious ranger. When Aegis first opened her eyes, the older woman leaned forward and had a good look at her, studying her pupils and feeling over her forehead. "She's awake," Jahiera announced.

A murmur of voices answered her, and to Aegis it seemed they were expressing a tone of relief. She tried to remember why that should reassure her. It took a moment. Then she recalled the ogre and tried to sit up. She only half succeeded. Every part of her body protested the motion. Her shoulder screamed in discomfort, her leg felt like it was on fire. Aegis grimaced and fell backwards again. Jahiera caught her and eased her back onto the grass. "Lie still," the druid recommended. "You are still badly injured, and must give us a moment to repair you. We exhausted most of our resources fighting the ogre.

Aegis grunted, teeth clenched, and tried to focus on how blue the sky was. Blue blue blue- ow holy fucking shit- ow-blue-ow-blue-blue-blue...

Imoen's face appeared in her field of view. "Aegis!" she cooed softly, respectful of the fact that Aegis might (and usually did) have a headache on top of her wounds. "Aegis, are you okay?"

The ranger gave another grunt, and opened her mouth when Jahiera tried to feed her the rest of the berries. They were bitter, but Aegis could tell they were helping, bit by bit. Still, it was an effort to swallow them.

"Everyone's okay," Imoen reassured her. "We thought we'd lost you for a second when you blacked out. You weren't breathing. Xzar had one potion left and he and Jahiera had to force feed it to you. You almost died! Don't do that to me again! What am I supposed to do if you die?" She waggled her arms in the air.

Aegis smiled through pain. Jahiera fed her another few berries and then gave the bowl to Khalid, who knelt down to take up the duty in her stead. Then there was some more pain as the Druid presumably began to apply more bandages, or maybe check ones that were already in place. Khalid looked just as worried. Even Montaron came over after a bit to have a look at her. When she'd eaten all of the berries, Khalid gently patted her cheek.

"H-how are you f-feeling?" he asked her.

Aegis swallowed and winced as Jahiera splinted something. "Worse than when I got mauled by a bear," the ranger muttered hoarsely. "What happened?"

Khalid and presumably Jahiera shared a look (Aegis couldn't tell for sure because Jahiera was outside her field of view- but she wagered Khalid wasn't sharing that kind of look with Xzar). "We were hoping _you_ could tell _us_."

Aegis groaned, "Dun remember," she told him. "Just... mph. I remember it picking up Xzar."

"You froze," Imoen said worridly, brows furrowed together. "And then you went _crazy_!"

Aegis grimaced. "Crazy?"

"Like you were all, RAAAAWWWW and then you JUMPED on it and you were hacking it and wrestling and oh my GOD it was terrifying! We thought you were going to die."

Aegis tried looking around. She saw Jahiera again, and more of Montaron. But no wizard. She let her head sink back, and closed her eyes. "L'st time ah saw 'n ogre, G'rion died," she mumbled. And then, quite suddenly, she had a pretty good idea why when watching the ogre throw Khalid, Jahiera, and Montaron around had produced no effect on her paralysis... but seeing it attack Xzar, a wizard, had apparently sent her into overdrive. She took in a sharp breath that made her ribs ache, and then couldn't help but utter something between a wheeze and a sob.

Khalid gave her uninjured shoulder a tight squeeze. Imoen gently touched her hair. Montaron attributed it more to pain than grief, and let it slide.

"Where's Urso?" she mumbled.

"He bit out one of the ogre's eyes!" Imoen made a funny face that Aeigis couldn't see. "And scrambled all over the place as crazy as you! He's okay, though. And you're not. He's sitting by your feet, eating some raisins."

"Ugh."

"We need to get her back to the Inn," Jahiera announced.

"It's gettin' mighty late," The halfling growled. "Wolves roam about after dark. Without a fire, with her leg snapped, we'll be easy pickin's. Should be makin' camp, not travelin'."

"That ogre had rolled its flail in Gibberling feces. The wounds are infected, and I no longer have the magic to cleanse them. If we wait till morning she will be fevered and delusional, and our trip back will be even slower and more dangerous. Worse, depending on the severity of the infection, she could pass from us before reaching the Inn in such a state. There isn't time to spare."

Montaron spit on the ground. "Tough. I ain't wolf bait."

Jahiera pursed her lips. "So you shall prefer to wait and play it safe this evening and permit me to extract my pound of flesh from you later should she die?"

Montaron tensed. "Watch it, elf."

"Can I have her _liver_ if she dies?!" came an excited coo. Aegis sighed. _There_ he was. Not in an ogre's belly, but somewhere north of her.

Khalid pursed his lips. "Absolutely Not!"

Imoen frowned at all of them, worried that Team Elf and Team Mad might decide to have a showdown right there in the forest while her sister was in dire need of healing.

"I ain't responsible for her jest chargin' in like a drunken wildebeest!"

"You may not have _anyone's_ liver!"

"Lies! Nonsense! Why, I could have your liver right now! Want me to sssshooowww you?"

"She saved your life you ungrateful whoreson!"

Aegis took a deep, slow breath. Then, with every fiber of her body grit to bear the pain, she grasped hold of the earth with her good hand and pushed herself up into a seated position. Khalid and Jahiera both jumped to steady her, but she didn't waver. "Lie _down_," Jahiera commanded. Aegis ignored her. She saw that her right arm and leg were almost useless; the leg was splinted from knee to heel and the ankle was held motionless. She glanced up at Montaron, recalling her father and the deep breathing exercises he had taught her. The halfling was watching her uncertainly, wondering if she actually had it in her.

Oh did she have it in her. By will alone (okay, Imoen frantically rushed forward to help her) she stood up on her one remaining leg, and let the other drag uselessly beside it. She looked from Jahiera, who simultaneously looked impressed and annoyed, to Khalid, and then to Xzar. The wizard was seated some distance away, still favoring his side, watching her curiously. Her eyes lingered on him a moment and then moved to Montaron. "Let's go," she said specifically to him, because in this moment he _needed_ her to show her strength, to be heavy handed. He snorted, but then nodded. "Just try to hobble along quickly, girly," he told her, "or I'll leave you to the doggies."

Aegis nodded without protest. She eased an arm around Imoen, and they headed off.

* * *

Jahiera would later explain that the wolf packs were behaving unusually these days. The marauding bandits, ogres, and monsters had agitated them, eaten their usual food sources, and in turn forced the wolves to 'eat back.' Coupled with the addition of several worgs to the local wolf populace, and suddenly the animals were bolder and more vicious than at any other time in the half elf's memory.

The party had to fend off attacks by two wolfpacks. A third, Jahiera was able to deter through druidic means and sheer desperation; a fight at that point might have killed off half of them.

The first attack was the worst. A wolf pulled Aegis's good leg out from under her, and brought her down hard on her bad one. The Friendly Arm Inn Healer would later tell her that this fall- had it been an iota worse- would have destroyed her leg. Imoen, her crutch, had been helpless to defend her for a few seconds as she pulled out her short sword. Then the girl almost dived onto her, hacking at the wolves to keep them from dragging her out into the night. Urso jumped on another wolf right as it leaped for the violet thief. He landed on its face, biting its eyes and nose. He was vicious. This was a life or death matter, and he was a warrior raccoon.

Khalid, armed with Aegis's axe, and Jahiera with her staff, were the only two combatants capable of protecting the greater party, and Khalid's shield was almost useless against such agile opponents. Xzar had exhausted his spells and still sported an injured rib. He was a larger target than Montaron, and barely managed to keep himself alive using a simple dagger. The thief was totally indifferent to the danger his party members were in. He kept close enough to Xzar to knock a wolf off should the wizard become seriously threatened. Aside from that it was clear he would make no move to help anyone else, even to stop one of them from being dragged away.

As the wolves retreated for a second strike, Imoen scrambled to get Aegis back on her feet. She had barely gotten behind the ranger, however, when Xzar suddenly shoved her out of the way. "Don't be all bubbleheaded!" he squealed in gross mockery of Imoen's voice, and then seized up her bow from where it had fallen in all the chaos and threw it to her. Imoen made to protest but hesitated when Xzar knelt down and seized Aegis under the shoulders, hauling her to her feet. She moaned as he stood her upright, and Imoen tried to move forward again. Xzar slapped at her. "Stoooooppp ittt, STOOOP ITTTTT!" he grated in a painfully nasal way.

It was hard for Imoen to admit, but he was right. Imoen needed to be on sniping duty, and Xzar had nothing to offer the party. It was better that he support Aegis. She swallowed hard and then nodded. Her wand of Magic Missile had gone missing in the fight with the ogre. It turned out that Montaron had stolen it the previous morning. Imoen had successfully repatriated it, not by calling the halfling out, but by stealing it back while Aegis was unconcious. She had it now, and she pulled it out of her bag and tossed it to the wizard. Xzar held Aegis upright with one arm, grabbed the wand, and then pulled her arm over his shoulder. "Wakey wakey," he cooed to the nearly delirious woman. Aegis dropped her head on his shoulder. In truth she needed someone on either side of her. Khalid would end up discarding his shield on the ground just to take up that position.

By the time they reached the Inn, Aegis was only partially conscious, and Khalid and Xzar were carrying her more than they were helping her walk; quite a feat given the fact that Xzar had injured ribs, and Khalid was fighting with an unfamiliar weapon. The party was beat, not a single member unscathed, and the only thing that had stood between them and death just twenty minutes past was an absolutely terrifying Jahiera whose maternal instincts and adrenaline combined were something awesome to behold. They stumbled as one unit into the temple. Aegis had been the first tended too, simply because she'd been in the worst condition.

She wasn't lucid again till morning- about four AM to be exact. She found her party bunking not in the inn, but in the temple around her. None of them were expressly in medical beds, but straw mattresses had been found for them, and all of them were sleeping hard and sporting bandages.

* * *

It was getting closer to five in the morning now. Aegis was nursing a cup of coffee; the temple priests had brought it for her when they saw she was up and awake and far from sleep. She sat at a small table, watching over her sleeping party members- raccoon included- sprawled all over the room. The stiffness was easing out of her limbs as she slowly extended and retracted her previously injured leg. She'd be good to go come morning. Well, that wasn't true. She'd be good to go after getting her armor fixed. That was going to take a day, she wagered. And to be honest, she had a pretty bad headache.

She sipped her drink, not really thinking anything at all. After a bit she wondered if she had made a bad call going after the hobgoblins and ogre all in one day. She reasoned the ogre might not have been able to take them all on if she hadn't frozen. So perhaps that fight had been her fault. But on the other hand, maybe it would have killed all of them if she hadn't flipped out.

She supposed she could neither blame nor commend herself. Her only clue that she'd done a proper job was that Montaron had been standing closest to her when she'd come to after killing the ogre, indicating that he'd held the biggest hand in helping her bring it down. And if that was the case, then she had more of his loyalty than he let on. And he was the hardest sell of the group.

Aegis reached under her shirt and clutched at a lock of silver gray hair. She wanted her father's strength and guidance. She wanted to hug him. Obviously she couldn't. She closed her eyes and took many deep breaths, trying not to sob, not to wake anyone. The act made her head hurt worse. She sat down her coffee and pinched the bridge of her nose.

Blankets ruffled. Aegis looked up. Xzar was sitting up rather stiffly. He yawned and rubbed his face, and reached out blindly for his spellbook. It wasn't where he expected to be, so he looked around with sleepy eyes. He caught sight of her and paused, staring at her with suddenly veiled eyes, as if he knew something she didn't. Aegis frowned, and could not help the creepy sensation that the man currently looking at her was only slightly Xzar- and far more sinister than crazy. The smile that spread over his lips was undeniably saccharine and cruel.

"Xzar?"

"Yeeesss, 'mistressss'?" his voice was languid, smooth, and deeper than usual. It seemed very wrong in the temple all of a sudden. "Have fuuuun with the ogre yesterdaaaay?"

"About that. Thank you for carrying me. And for feeding me your last potion, actually."

The smile dripped off his face, replaced with something of a frown. His eyes opened further, more curious than malicious. Aegis settled her elbows on her table and rubbed at her temples. Headaches. They were the bane of her existence. Only usually they were from hangovers, not from nearly dying. Through the increased pounding she heard the blankets shuffle, and then something glass was settled onto the table top in front of her. Aegis opened her eyes. Xzar pushed a vial into her field of view. It took her a moment to realize what she was looking at. Then she recognized it as a headache potion. She looked over it at him, at where he settled down on the ground on the other side of her table, pale green eyes watching her almost innocently.

After a moment, she thanked him, picked up the vial, and downed it. Relief was instantaneous and heavenly. She could only hope it hadn't involved any livers.


	10. At the Inn in Beregost

Fun fact! Aegis is actually pronounced "Ee-jiss" not "Ay-giss" or "Ai-giss". It isn't a very feminine name XD

* * *

Aegis was nearly asleep on her feet.

She hadn't been able to get a proper night's rest since the incident with the ogre, and she knew it was something like guilt or fear that kept her awake at nights. She'd lay in her bedroll, listening to the breathing of her companions around her. The closest person was usually Imoen, who had a tendency to snuggle up against Aegis's back during the night and, occasionally, steal all of her blankets. Jaheira would usually bunk down on Aegis's other side, a gesture that was probably more maternal than either Aegis or Jaheira would have cared to admit.

Speaking of Jaheira, Aegis and her were not getting along at all. They had argued at least six times since the battle with the ogre, and Aegis was sure the next argument would be about her poor sleep. Like she needed a lecture to start making herself sleep better. Like she was somehow voluntarily sleeping poorly. Ugh. But true as it might have been that the two women never saw eye to eye, Aegis wouldn't have dreamed of asking the older woman to leave. In a weird way, she was family. She'd been Gorion's friend, and anyway Aegis really liked Khalid. Likewise, she doubted Jaheira wanted to part ways either. They were stuck with each other.

Walking ahead of her, Montaron said something that provoked Jahieira's ire. She heard the other woman saying something severe and condescending, but the exact wording was lost on her. She was really tired.

"Not sleeping well?" came a voice like bubbling honey near her ear. Aegis sighed and looked lazily over at the necromancer.

"Nope," she answered.

"Any idea whhhyyy?" he purred.

She grunted in affirmation, but then noticed lights peeking through the dark trees ahead. "Ah. Is that Beregost? What time is it?"

"Yes. An hour after dusk," he theorized, still watching her curiously, and his voice was both calm and fairly stable for the time being. A courteous young man running errands just outside the city was kind enough to offer them directions. Imoen asked him for the locations of a few different shops- most importantly the blacksmith- before requesting directions to the inn. The young man blinked curiously at them in the twilight and then asked innocently, "Which one?"

Aegis, who was playfully entertaining the thought that Xzar was trying to figure out which organs he'd harvest first if she suddenly dropped dead from exhaustion on the spot, perked up. "There's more than one!?" she exclaimed, the first loud noise she'd made in over a day. Jaheira sighed, and Montaron cracked out laughing.

"Still alive back there?" he hooted. "Aye there's more'n one! There's four!"

"Four... inns..." Aegis gasped, thinking she had never heard such a wonderful proclamation before in her life. "I want all of them."

"Which is nearest?" asked Imoen with a yawn of her own. "I think we all need to get a bit of sleep."

"Well, there's the Red Sheaf and the Jovial Juggler," the young man informed them. "The Sheaf is probably the best quiet place, and the Juggler's has the best pub in-"

"The Juggler!" shouted Aegis, all tiredness forgotten.

"The Sheaf," growled Jaheira with a disapproving look backwards. Aegis shrank back from that look.

"But- but-!"

"There are plenty of other evenings to drink on," the druid said, looking Aegis up and down to highlight that the Ranger was in no condition for partying.

Aegis winced and then her shoulders slumped in defeat. "The Sheaf," she pouted unhappily. "But I want a bottle of wine."

Montaron winked at her. He had a hand behind his back and opened up his fingers to show he'd just nicked drinking money from the half-elf's purse. Although she was usually against foolish demonstrations of thievery, Aegis couldn't help the devilish grin that worked over his face. Suited the half-elf right, this did. Suited her right.

The inn was just getting warmed up for the night when the party of six funneled through its doorway. It was indeed a quiet place, and small, where merchants gathered to do their business. Imoen proceeded up to the bar to renting their rooms (and haggle the price down to a reasonable number). Jahiera and Montaron followed to assist in the decision making process, while Khalid looked fondly after his wife. Aegis looked across the common room of the inn, depressed at the lifeless atmosphere. At least the fireplace was warm. She took a few steps inward and slipped a nut into her pack where Urso was 'hiding.' It wasn't usually good form to bring animals into merchant inns.

A dwarven man who had been drinking near the fire caught sight of her as she went to warm up her hands. He took a long, patient draught of his ale and then stood up and approached her, wiping his beard off with his forearm. Aegis blinked at the sight of him, then tensed as she watched him ease an battle axe out into his hands and raise it high. Aegis released a startled curse and tore her handaxe from her belt, knowing the weapon was a measly defense against the dwarf's heavier weapon and better leverage. She tried to defect the first swing off to her side and dodge to her left, but the assassin's weapon came down with so much momentum that it jolted her own weapon aside, tossed her slightly, and sent jolts of pain up to her shoulder.

Gods! She hadn't even been hit yet! That thing was going to split her in twain! People in the inn were standing up and shouting in surprise. Some of her friends had no doubt turned towards her and were trying to get their bearings, but the dwarf had already rounded on her and was coming in for a second swing. No one had been paying enough attention to help her, no one but- A hand suddenly reached out from behind the dwarf, grabbing the bulky little man's shoulder. Xzar uttered something in Draconic and then cold energy burst over the dwarf's armor, throwing off his swing. The dwarf growled but the attack only seemed to make him angry. He whirled about, his axe blade still moving at a fast pace, and aimed to cleave the necromancer in twain at the waist.

Xzar leapt backwards in surprise, then blinked when the dwarf did not follow him. The tavern went silent. The dwarf was very still, mouth gaping open in reptilian surprise, blood oozing down his face. Standing directly behind him, shoulders shaking violently with each breath, eyes seething with feral rage, Aegis had closed the distance to the dwarf's unguarded backside in a heartbeat. Her axe had sunk into his metal helmet so hard and so fast that the sturdy axe handle had cracked. Aegis's axe had existed long before the iron crisis; but the renegade dwarf's helmet had not. The diseased steel had fragmented under her blow, and the wedge of her handaxe had sunk six inches into his cranium

The dwarf was dead long, long before his body hit the ground. Aegis stood over him, every muscle in her body tense and clenching, almost spasming. When she was sure he was dead she cast her gaze around the room, daring any other man to try and kill her. Her breathing came in sharp, ragged bursts. When no one challenged her she gave a frustrated, enraged scream of dominance, the sort of sound a primal man might once have made over a kill. She threw her damaged axe furiously down into the floorboards, where it stuck, and then stalked bitterly past Xzar and out into the night.

The necromancer watched her shrewdly as she entered the inn, but then turned a wide and curious look back to the party. "Ae-Aegis!" Imoen called then went to hurry out after her sister. Jaheira grabbed her arm.

"She needs to cool off," Jaheira noted.

"Someone just attacked her!" Imoen cried out. "She's got no weapons! Ohgma's ass, she crushed his brain!"

That seemed to jerk everyone into motion again. The innkeeper tried to calm down the upset patrons. Someone went to find a guard. "It is certain that stalking off into the night with such men afoot is dangerous," Jaheira agreed in a low tone that passed through all the commotion. "Therefore, perhaps it is best if you followed her from stealth, to keep an eye on her, rather than confronting her directly."

Imoen swallowed but noted.

"She's already gotten quite far ahead of us." Khalid brought up. "She could be anywhere!"

Montaron gave the elf an absurd look "Are you daft? O'course she'll go to a _pub!_ Probably not the Juggler, s'too close.."He rubbed his chin, then wondered why he cared if the nitwit walked off and got herself killed at the next tavern. He had half a mind just to grab a wheel of cheese and a mug of ale, but the thought occurred to him that he still had the half-elf bint's stolen cash and he'd prefer spending it in an inn where she wasn't watching.

"You can't be sure of that," Khalid said.

Montaron rolled his eyes. "I been in Beregost before- C'mon girly, we'll check the Burnin' Wizard first," he waved at Imoen.

Jahiera grimaced. "You're precisely the sort of man I'd worry about," she growled. Montaron shot her an eye, then blinked as he looked about.

"The hell that fool wizard get ta?"

* * *

Aegis was already on her second mug when Xzar slipped into the booth beside her. He could move rather quietly due to his lack of armor, so she didn't notice him till the physical sensation of a nearby person made her open her eyes. The green color of his robes caught her sight first and she lifted up her mug to take another draft. She looked at him over the rim of her mug, and gulped down the frothy cream. Xzar watched her innocuously enough and said nothing.

When she needed to come up for air she lowered the mug with a heavy thud and flagged down a serving girl to bring the wizard a cup of wine and her a few more tankards. She was just about to take another gulp from her drink when the wizard spoke.

"You're very strange," he told her.

Aegis planted her elbow on the table, half turned in her seat, and gave him a baffled look. "Said the pot to the kettle," she noted.

Xzar lifted his brows. "Cooking vessels talk to you?" he asked doubtfully. Aegis sighed.

"I think you may grossly overestimate your abilities to have a level conversation with me about my strangeness," she told him. "So if ya don't mind, I'd like to drink." She started in on her next mug.

He straightened up, clearly insulted, and then hunkered down a little and sneered at her. "You certainly have a lot of men with pointy weapons and mean spells following you around, m'dear," he purred contemptuously. "I wonder _why_...? What makes _you_ so special to that horned man you met in the woods?"

Aegis grimaced and swallowed her gulp of alcohol. "The _hell_ if I know," she told him and then stubbornly took another drink.

"Hell is an apt term," the necromancer decided. "There's something _dark_ in you, Candlekeep girl... There's something dark, something dark which loves to _kill_."

Her hands clenched on the mug and she set it down with a bang. Perceiving that she was becoming angry, Xzar prodded a little harder. He wanted to see what would happen. Would she turn on him, he wondered? The whole inn? The town? How badly could she fall?

"Did it excite you, Aegis?"

"What?" she grit out. "Killing the dwarf?"

"No. Watching _him_ die. Watching your _foster father_ die. Did the blood excite you? Did the death, the sudden stop of life, the final clench of the heart before still-"

Aegis whirled on him. She seized the wizard by the collar with both hands bunched tightly in the fabric of his robe, and hoisted him straight off his ass and directly in front of her face. "Xzar, you-"

"When you think about it..." the wizard cooed almost seductively, "do you get _thrills_?"

Aegis's hands tightened.

"Is that why you can't sleep...?" he cooed seductively, as if the high of murdering another creature were on a level of excitement befitting sexual arousal.

"_Xzar,_" she hissed in a neutral and commanding tone. The viperous look on his face fled as if wiped away by a gust of wind. A wide-eyed expression replaced it, and he looked down at her almost curiously. "I can't sleep, Xzar, cause every time I close my eyes I hear bones crunchin' and you _screaming_ and I wake up in cold sweats, scared yer_ all __dead_ cause of my _mistake_."

He stared at her, lips parting in bafflement. After a moment she dropped him back into his seat and then leaned wearily back into the wall. She draped a hand over her eyes and bowed her head, breathing heavily. Xzar frowned to himself, looking her up and down uncertainly.

"You're very strange," he told her unhappily.

Aegis opened her eyes and looked at him from between her splayed fingers. She picked up her mug of ale and drank it in a single gulp, and then reached for another the waitress had left her. Aegis had a phenomenal constitution, but she wagered she was going to need to piss after this next one. She sipped the foam off the top. There was silence behind her for a long time. Then Xzar eased his way out of the booth.

Aegis pinched the bridge of her nose, leaned back over the table, and continued drinking. After a bit, she got up and found the bathroom. When she got back, she was surprised to see that Xzar had in fact returned to the booth. Not only that, but he wasn't the only one there. Imoen and Montaron had taken up the other two seats, and between them they had a platter of food large enough for all of them. Pausing at the end of the table, Aegis blinked at them in surprise.

Imoen smiled and waved. "Hey sis! Don't mind if we crash the party, do ya?" Aegis looked at Montaron.

"Elf bint is payin'," he chortled. "Don't worry 'bout the Sheaf either. She n' the Inkeeper got everythin' straightened out."

Lastly Aegis looked to Xzar, who surely must have led the other two to her table. He looked up at her sheepishly. After a moment, a small smile worked its way onto her face. "Alright, make room," she joked, "'less ya want me to crush you all with my giant rump." Imoen and Montaron fidgeted slightly but the wizard scooted quickly towards the interior of the booth and Aegis settled in beside him.

"Ya can have my seat," Montaron offered suddenly, making a face at the wizard as he did so. Aegis blinked at this surprising display of generosity. She shot Imoen a look to see if the girl had paid him off under the table, but the violet girl blinked innocently back at her. Lastly Aegis again looked to Xzar, who appeared to be dissecting his food on his plate and making quite a mess about it. Her brows furrowed in absurd amusement at him and the corner of her mouth quirked upward again.

"Nah," Aegis decided, "I don't think he's contagious."

Montaron was surprised but guffawed and then stuffed more food into his mouth. "Aye, or I'd be mad as a hatter ages ago," he said through crumbles of cheese.

"_Well_, you most certainly _are_," Xzar told him crossly. "You may wish to get that checked out."

"Has he successfully eaten anything?" Aegis asked.

"I don't think so," Imoen decided, tapping her chin, "although he's drinking the wine."

"He really doesn't eat enough," Aegis agreed, stabbing up some of the food onto her fork and then looking between it and the necromancer. "Ya know he ends up burying half his food in the ground every day and then complaining that it's dirty. Or if I'm around I can usually get him to give it to me first."

Montaron scowled. "Waste," he growled, "so give him less and give more to me! Hoi, wait, you mean _you_ been eaten stuff he touches? Braver than me, girl."

"This here's a high-maintenance rear end," Aegis told him sagely, patting her thigh as she said so, "needs alotta meat." The halfling laughed. "Xzar, you gonna eat?"

The necromancer ignored her, furiously stabbing apart a tiny mushy brown bit of whatever it was he'd obliterated.

"Xzar? Hey. _Xzar_." The necromancer nearly jumped out of his skin and then blinked over at her again. She took the opportunity to push the loaded fork into his mouth. He squeaked and sputtered and jerked backwards with a disgusted look on his face. "Do not spit that out." He looked up at her with round eyes. She watched him crossly. A moment passed in which the other two members of the table watched curiously. Then the necromancer begrudgingly chewed and swallowed the food. He made a sour face.

"Where did that _come from_?" he asked, horrified. "It could have been _dirty_!"

Aegis threw her arms up in the air as Imoen laughed. "I tried!" she told the gods, and then she grabbed for one of the tankards the serving girl had left. "And now... now I'm going to get _really drunk_. And then, I'm going to go up there and ask the bard to dance with me."

Her friends laughed. "Jaheira won't be happy," Imoen cooed.

"Ah sod the nasty troll-lady," Montaron scoffed.

Aegis, who was already halfway through her new drink, gave a mocking salute.

Beer beer beer, tiddly...


	11. Test Results Inconclusive

This chapter is silly XD.

* * *

When Aegis woke up it was still early.

All her life she'd been expected to wake up shortly after dawn, and no severity of hangover, no late-night antics, had ever been enough justification for a late wake-up. From her time on the road to the days they'd spent at the Friendly Arm Inn, Aegis had usually been expected to wake with the dawn. Well, it hadn't been that hard to do so. Not really.

And as she woke up now, smelling thickly of sweat and alcohol, with the seven o'clock sun oozing in through the windows, her head pounding and her heavy eyes drooping beneath the weight of a far too recent bedtime, Aegis did not feel bad about her situation. In fact, she felt quite satisfied and content. She just wished her headache would abate for a moment. Headaches. She abhored them. They were never enough of a deterrent to keep her from drinking, never so acute that she couldn't rise from bed, but oh did she hate...

She hated...

She...

She was not alone. And she was definitely naked.

Entangled in the blankets beneathe her body, Aegis felt the steady rise and fall of another's breathing. There was warm skin bare against her breasts and waist; a heat against the cup of her left hip. She felt hair between her fingertips. Groggy but already awake, Aegis fumbled to prop herself up on her arms, stirring a pillow that had been over her left elbow. Whoever she was with was a little smaller than her, and she'd collapsed on top of them the night before. Her head churned and she coughed out a surprised laugh.

This was unexpected. The hell had she done last night? Had she just lost her virginity? She didn't feel any pain, but then she wasn't a particularly delicate woman. Oi, was this a laugh; to have sex the first time while too drunk to remember! The bard had been shorter than her, she remembered, but then many men were. Had she slept with a man, even? Er, probably. Drunk-Aegis had never previously flirted with any women.

The ranger shifted in her position, turning to looked down at the face of the man she'd nearly smothered the night before. He'd dragged a pillow partially over his own head to blot out the sun no doubt, and she took a moment to balance herself on one arm before lifting the pillow out of the way.

Aegis took in a sharp breath of air and the muscles in her arms stiffened. She looked down at her provisional lover in awe, some alarm, and quite a bit of surprise. Then she was suddenly aware of the leg she had flung possessively over his own, and the way her arms had been coiled protectively around his head and her fingers had been latched in his graham hair.

Aegis stared down at the indisputable evidence that she had slept with the necromancer. After a moment, the only though that entered her mind was to wonder why on Faerun had Xzar voluntarily slept with her? Raking her memories she was certain the man loathed physical contact. He had been out of spells that night, if memory served, and Aegis had been inebriated to the point she hadn't been able to form new memories. But she suspected that no amount of drunken stupor could have withstood the necromancer's gratingly high-pitched shrieking if she had pressed attention on him. The hell? The hell?

His face had an amazing innocence as he slept. No longer distorted by his wild expressions, his tattoos coiled almost pleasantly over his facial features. Aegis gaped at him for a long while, watching the rise and fall of his chest as he breathed, amazed at how thin and fragile he would look next to even Imoen or Jaheira. Apparently that lack of fat worked against him. She'd been up on her elbows no longer than sixty seconds before an unhappily pout graced his lips, and his fingers tugged gently at the edge of a blanket.

Her headache was starting to get worse. She needed to get up and find a wash basin to puke into. She needed to pee. She needed to lie back down for a bit. She needed a-... a.. a headache cure.

"Xzar," she rasped thickly, her voice still dry from lack of use that morning. "Xzar..." she gently shook his shoulder. His face contorted and then green eyes flickered open sleepily. Thoughtless in the first moments of waking, the necromancer's face was childish and even cute. "Xzar, I have a headache," she mumbled tiredly. Green eyes flicked to her. Aegis broke off, watching as his mind drew in his location, registered her presence, and then realized just how very close she was to him. His eyes opened wide and he took in a deep breath.

Oh no. During a hangover.

The necromancer's high-pitched shriek must have woken up six people, and Aegis thought she heard a heavy thud from the room nearby as maybe Montaron fell out of his bed. Her eyes squeezed shut in pain and she loosed a low moan of displeasure. She didn't cover his mouth. He'd probably bite her.

"Stop touching- stop -stop- STOP TOUCHING ME- Get off! Get off!" the necromancer howled, debating himself chaotically, each syllable ringing in at a completely different pitch and all at a terribly enormous volume.

Aegis could try smothering him with a pillow, a voice called within her brain (with actually quite some seriousness) but instead she simply collapsed back down against the necromancer and moaned helplessly into the blankets. She didn't want to let him up. If she had a scrap of dignity left to save she could not let him go streaking naked from her room.

Though, of course, now she was touching him even more. Xzar did not appreciate. He shrieked and then pinched and clawed at her with the nails of one hand. The other was trapped beneathe her. "Xzar, I'm not hurting-" she croaked.

He wailed as if she were seriously hurting him and then went very still. Aegis looked at him with a start, brain still foggy, head pounding. He was staring at her with round eyes, his breath fluttering in his chest, a look of panicked terror on his face. Confused, she tried to move. She wanted a better look at him, and with the way they were oriented he was practically buried under her shoulder.

"Don't!" he gasped. Aegis paused and blinked at him in confusion. He swallowed and then forced out a tiny little squeak of a, "don't!"

Aegis admitted that it had never occurred to her that maybe Xzar had a legitimate reason for not wanting to be touched. Most people had reasons for how they acted, after all. Logically, even insane necromancers had a story behind each and every quirk; from their spiraling tattoos to their ridiculous preoccupations with liver.

"Xzar..." she murmured quietly, at a loss for what to do. "It's okay. It's okay. I'm not hurting you."

The necromancer swallowed heavily, staring up at her face as she carefully readjusted her weight and eased her pelvis away from his. He smelled faintly of musk and wine, and Aegis wondered if perhaps liquor had been the culprit on both their ends.

"See?" she mumbled past the drum beat in her skull. "See, I'm not hurting you. I'm going to cover you up with a blanket, okay?."

The necromancer made a choked whimper in the back of his throat, still breathing hard. Aegis hesitated for a moment, but then carefully reached down and straightened one of the blankets. She pulled it over the wizard's slight form, ensuring he was completely covered, and she tugged it up to his collarbone. He shuddered, hesitantly touching the cloth and then hugging it tightly to his chest.

After a moment, he wiggled further away from her, into the pillows and the headboard. Aegis winced as he hit his head, and her own ached in sympathetic protest, and then she carefully sat to the side so there was some space between them both. He swallowed hard a few times, staring at her.

"Why are you naked?" he demanded suddenly, but his voice thankfully was back in a normal human speaking range. "Why are you naked? I don't like it!"

Aegis lifted a brow and sighed. "I don't remember. I was hoping you would," she confessed, rubbing miserably at her temple.

He fidgeted. "Were you trying to eat my soul?" he asked.

She opened her eyes and looked dumbfounded at him. "No."

"Liar," he mumbled, "my hips are sore. The shoe that doesn't fly at midnight is the rotten one!"

For a moment she was prepared to dismiss that all as slightly amusing nonsense- she was pretty sure women were supposed to be sore, not men. Then she realized a fair number of fiends were known to consume souls after intimacy, and that Xzar or his assosiates might not actually have been above dealing with one. The hell had happened to this man? Who and what was he, really? She'd woken up in bed with someone who was terribly insane and whom she knew nothing at all about.

Aegis stared at him quietly for a moment and then tried to move closer to him. He tensed up and looked as if he might scream again or else wet himself. His eyes darted around frantically for his spellbook and, not finding it, he looked horrified back at her. Aegis hesitated, pausing for a moment before inching further towards him. She came up over him again, baffled by how he sunk miserably into the bed sheets. He looked like he wanted to melt. She shook her head, leaned over, and- despite his cringing and his breathy, "Don't!" she kissed the top of his head.

The necromancer swallowed hard, grasping uncertainly at her arms. The mild affection seemed almost tolerable, however. She heard him gulping in air as if he were trying to calm himself.

"Xzar," she murmured tiredly, "I'm pretty sure that's only because you had slightly rough sex. Not because a demon or other nefarious individual was trying to siphon out your soul."

A heartbeat-length pause. Xzar squirmed lightly, lifting his head to look perplexed at her face. "I had sex?" he exclaimed in amazement. Aegis blinked at him. "With what?"

She stared at him blankly for a moment, no expression marring her face except for perhaps sleepy winces of pain. Then after a long miment, she asked, "Can you cast an anti-headache spell, or does that only come in potion form?"

Green eyes flicked nervously over her features for a long moment as his breathing settled down a little and he swallowed a few times. Then it seemed he noticed the pain in her expression, and a soft curiousity eased out to mask his distress. His fingers clenched against the skin of her arms a few times before easing upward in uncertain starts and at last coming to rest at her face and temple. He licked his lips and his eyeslashes fluttered. He mumured the words of her new favorite cantrip, and then soothing relief blossemed out from where his fingers were touching, casting a veil of chill water over the plains of her mind.

Aegis groaned at the relief, the muscles in her limbs almost buckling. Jaheira and the rest of the world could wait a bit. After that rukkus, she wanted at least an hour more of sleep. But Aegis was still present enough in mind to know that collapsing back on top of the necromancer could induce another shrieking fit. She mumbled a word of thanks, ruffled his hair, and then lowered herself to the side of him, closing her eyes blissfully against the plesant morning light.

Xzar scooted nervously away from her, pressing up against the opposite wall and headboard and wriggling up into a sitting position. "You still have no clothes!" he complained. "And you smell!"

"Said the kettle to the pot," she mumbled into the blankets.

"You're crazy, go away," he oozed haughtily.

"We're in my room," she retorted. It looked like Xzar would not be giving her that nap.

He looked around in suprise. "Why is your room so nice?" he complained. "Its much nicer than myyy rooms, why do you always get the nice things? And those curtains, I want those curtains! And that fly, it's spectacular!" he seethed with jealousy.

Aegis did remember she had paid money for a more expensive room. She hadn't known Xzar, Montaron, and Imoen were going to follow her, and she had wanted a room that locked for the evening. Well, that was one way to spend her cut of the ogre's bounty. She supposed the rest would go to fixing her axe.

Aegis mumbled something incoherant, because truly there were no coherant answers to give him, and then rolled over and pulled one of the pillows over her head, and tried not to think about what the long term consequences of sleeping with the necromancer might have been. She just wanted another sixty minutes of calm.

A long moment passed in which her accidental lover squirmed about like an impatient toddler with ants in his trouser seat. Then when it seemed he had calmed down a little and Aegis had nearly drifted off, she felt the wizard move a little closer to her. At first he simply scooted away from the wall. Then he actively settled beside her, and she felt the depression of his hand on the bed as he leaned curiously over her. He hovered there for a long moment.

"Did I have sex with you?" he asked her.

"Likely," she told him.

"But why? If you were not trying to steal my soul, or my kidneys, then what was the objective? You are not very attractive," he observed, and then finally struck upon an explanation: "You mustn't have cost very much."

Ho, now, that was low. "I was two million gold," she grumbled sarcastically.

"What! Well that's terribly overpriced for a pig. I shall simply have to return you. Where did I put that bill of sale? Or were you a rental?"

"Xzar..." she growled and felt him jump slightly. "Unless you want me to pitch you out the window and into the neighbor's chicken coup, shut the hell up. Either go back to sleep or put your clothes on and go to breakfast. Your clothes this time, not any of mine."

A long moment passed in silence, before, "Aren't I loooaaathesome, nature child?" he cooed, tasting the word as if it were one he heard often. "Dissstuuurbing, oafish, unnatural, unpleasant, unsettling, disssgusting, wrong? Don't you hhhaaattte meee, like the druuiiid does?"

Aegis grunted. "Course not."

Her blunt and unexpected answer seemed to confuse the wizard, who again was quiet for a very long while. He was quiet for so long, in fact, that Aegis soon forgot the liver-coveting madman was still perched over her. She was almost back to sleep when she felt him lean down and press a hesitant kiss into her hair. She didn't react, at least not voluntarily, but a little tingle of interest shot through her spine, and it seemed that her peripheral nerve tissue remembered something her mind did not. He wiggled back under the covers and- with a good foot of space seperating them- went back to sleep.

Long term consequences indeed.


	12. Dear Lord Oghma

_Gorion was writing letters. He was so absorbed in what he was doing that he didn't seem to hear her. It wasn't like him to get so drawn into something that he became numb to the outside world. His ears were as sensitive as an elf's, his intuition sharp as a rapier; usually he could tell if she was up to mischief even many rooms away. She studied the look on his face, and through her own dilemma saw that he was neither excited nor tracking down the solution to an interesting riddle; he seemed worried. _

_"Papa?" she mumbled softly. He gave a little jump and looked quickly to her. For a moment she saw a haunted look in his eyes, a look she'd only ever seen rarely and briefly but one she knew well. It turned up here and there, usually when he thought she wasn't looking. But sometimes when he was staring straight at her, straight into her eyes, straight into her soul, she saw it. Those times, she always knew she had done something terribly wrong. But then the haunted look was gone, and he smiled with a golden warmth that drove away all darkness._

_"Yes, my child? Do you need something?"_

_Standing off to the side, Aegis wrung her little hands against one another. She was such a beautiful girl, Gorion thought, glad to have his writing disrupted. So brilliant and filled with life. Her yellow hair spiraled in untamed curls about her head; a red ribbon pulled the strands back from her forehead so that the summer heat did not become unbearable. Red textiles were some of the most expensive colors on Faerun, as the dye for long-lasting reds did not come cheaply. But Red was Aegis's favorite color, and it did his heart good to spoil his child; Judging by the look of Imoen, Winthrop couldn't resist the temptation to let her splurge on a little indigo, either! What spoiled little devils they were raising._

_"Um..."_

_It appeared Aegis had been involved in some mischief and was debating whether to tell him before he heard word of it from someone else first. He waited patiently, still smiling gently. She was wearing her favorite red dress- a garment Ultruant had once called garish- but had eschewed her shoes. No doubt she'd gone running barefoot to feel the grass between her toes, but the gentle chastises of monks towards her state of undress couldn't be the reason for her nervousness._

_"Is something wrong?" he prompted gently. _

_Aegis looked up at him with wide hazel eyes, and again he thought of how beautiful she was. Her eyes were predominantly neither brown nor green, but golden. She was like a radiant little sunbeam from start to finish. "Daddy," she said slowly. "Am... Am I broken?"_

_Gorion sat up in alarm, blue eyes widening. "Aegis," he admonished, standing up to approach her. "What is wrong?"_

_She bit her lower lip and wrung at the hem of her dress. "Immy... Immy and I were playing and..." she trailed off and wiggled about for a moment. Had something happened? Was Imoen alright? Gorion knelt down and looked his daughter's bronzed face in concern. _

_"Tell me what happened, child," he encouraged calmly, gently taking her little hands from the hem of her dress and clasping them in his own. _

_"I was playing... and and a bird struck one of the windows. We went up to look at it and it's neck was broken and it couldn't move. Immy was sad and I didn't get it, and I laughed. She told me I was bad for laughing, and I was confused! I asked her what was wrong and she said people aren't supposed to be happy when they watch things die." _

_Aegis was starting to tear up, clearly frustrated. Gorion's blue eyes had widened and he was holding her little hands very tightly._

_"She said I should be sad, but I wasn't sad at all! Then she told me Fluffles would die one day and asked if I would be sad watching that and I said no and she told me that was bad of me she wouldn't play with me anymore and she t-took the b-bird and r-ran o-off," her words had started dissolving into sobs, and each one was like a knife. He tugged her swiftly into his arms, burying her in the warmest and most secure hug he knew how to give. Aegis clutched at his robes tightly, hiccuping a little in her frustrated distress. She tried to get her words together to ask him a question again, but he hushed her and smothered his face into her golden hair. He rubbed her little back and rocked her until her sobs had dissipated. She clung tightly to him, trusting he would make the world clearer to her, trusting in his love for her._

_Gods, if she had ever known how close he'd come to- He wiped that thought from his mind and squeezed her to him._

_"You are not broken, Aegis," he told her at last. He had never practiced this story, nor previously worked to hone this moral; it was not the sort of story any other father ever needed to tell his daughter. Nevertheless, paternal instincts seemed to instinctively know the way. And a road- a morality- that once would have been hidden in the ominous shadows flanking either side was now suddenly clear to him. _

_"B-but-"_

_"You are not broken. And it would not matter if you were. We do not pick what we are, my beautiful child. We pick _who _we become. I cannot be an elf; You cannot pick what you feel; no one chooses to be broken. But we pick what to do with ourselves. We choose. And in choosing, we are light or dark."_

_"But what do I do," she mumbled tearfully. "I don't know what to do! I don't know how to pretend!"_

_"Never pretend!" he whispered in a surprised voice, and then kissed her hair. "You know what you love. Take care of the things you love, Aegis. Take care of small birds and kittens and skunks and toads, and all the other little creatures you adore. That is what makes you good. Not pretending to be sad."_

_"Where did Immy go," she blubbered. "What did she do with the bird...?"_

_Gorion kissed her again. "Perhaps we should go find out."_

* * *

Aegis only managed to get another hour of sleep before her internal alarm clock's snooze function expired and she awoke with the compulsion to rise for the morning. She tried to roll onto her back first, but found surprisingly that Xzar was in the way. He had closed the gap between them and was nestled up against her. She reasoned he must have done so unconsciously. Aegis glanced over her shoulder at the necromancer, but all she could see was a mop of graham hair and a cocoon of protective blanket. A moment passed numbly, followed by another suffused in amusement, and then finally a lingering feeling of endearment settled in.

Eh, this wasn't as bad as it could have been. She eased herself carefully out of the bed and then walked over to the other side of the room. There she found a washing basin, a pitcher of air temperature water, a bar of soap and several wash cloths. After wiping herself clean from the previous night's activities, she set about to putting on fresh clothes and gathering up her used things for the laundress to wash. She also fetched Xzar's spare robes and placed those in reach of the bed.

Only once his clothes were in reach and Aegis herself was dressed did she reach over and give the wizard's shoulder a gentle shake. The necromancer writhed a little and then blinked to wakefulness. By the time he was cognizant, Aegis was no longer touching him. He yawned and propoed himself up hesitantly, keeping the blanket wrapped around him. Aegis couldn't help but look him up and down, her eyes lingering on the arch of his back and the way the blanket fabric bunched around his narrow chest and waist. Hmm.

"Are you a cannibal?" the necromancer queried.

Aegis wrinkled her nose and lifted her gaze back to his face. "Good morning, Xzar. What's a 'cannibal'?"

Xzar blinked and thought about the question for a moment, "Something that eats its own kind, technically," he drawled thoughtfully. "Although usually dirty Harpers use it to mean eating any humanoids at all."

Aegis lifted her brows and for a moment wondered if this was a variant of his soul eating question. Then a smile suddenly cracked its way across her face. "Why do you ask?" she wondered mischievously, advancing a step towards him and invading his personal space and licking her lips. "Am I looking at you like you're an oh so delicious chunk of veal?"

Xzar's eyes widened slightly and he cowed down from her with a little eep. Aegis knew then that she was toying with the edges of a traumatized behavior she didn't really understand, and that it was wrong of her to continue. She stood back a step and then smiled a little apologetically and hunched down in front of him, putting herself below his level. The change in relative elevation seemed to reassure him and he sat up, still holding tightly onto the blanket.

"Yes," he pouted, as his feet slipped off the bed, his tone indicating that he was quite offended by her. She continued smiling up at him. "Like a cannibal! Are you sure you don't want my kidneys? Well you can't have them! Stop- stop looking- your eyes! I will tear them out and cook them with fava beans!"

"I'm sorry," she told him honestly. "If I leave you alone in here, are you going to bathe and dress yourself or are you going to conduct strange blood rites, summon an undead battalion, dress it up in pretty ribbons, conquer the world, accidentally light yourself on fire, conjure a cake, and then run streaking naked through the city until someone douses you with a barrel of cow milk?"

Xzar glared at her. "Preposterous!" he blustered. "They get very touchy about summoning undead battalions here you know, and the nearest dairy store is much too far for a naked person to reach while on fire before succumbing to their wounds. Barrels of cow milk are only for storage and long distance transportation! It would have to be a pitcher or bottle and then why wouldn't a person use water anyway and- why are you smiling at me like that?"

Aegis was grinning more and more, not least of which was because the necromancer had released the blanket so that he might gesticulate wildly with his hands, and now the fabric had slipped dangerously low around his hips. He looked down and then squeaked and gathered the fabric up against him again, looking scandalized at her. Aegis laughed, Xzar scowled.

"You-" he growled, indignant, "You-you-you think I'm... I'm.. You think I'm _cute_," and he uttered that final word as if it were some terrible curse. "Like a little piglet, or angel, or faerie, or doll, or-or-or virgin stable boy! I am not! I am not cute! Don't think it! I will never, am never, could be never-!"

She had the decency to look innocent.

"I am _Xzar_! Destroyer of worlds, bringer of plagues, master of undeath and wizardry! I should call down a curse on you now, harlot, hellion, harpy! I am NOT CUTE. Where is my spellbook?!"

Aegis stood up a little in her crouch, invading his personal space. Xzar choked off and took in a breath to scream as she touched his face, but Aegis swiftly leaned in to kiss his forehead and he clutched helplessly at her shirt sleeve. Then he made an inarticulate sound in the back of his throat that was somewhere between a hum and a choke, his eyes closing to slits. Aegis smiled and repeated the gesture.

"Have you any idea..." he uttered, and his voice was in a low and viperous tone, far darker, far more cunning, "...what kind of monster you are toying with...? Have you any clue... what sorts of flesh have passed _these_ teeth...?"

Aegis drew her head back and looked at him in surprise, noticing that everything about the way he held himself had changed, from the tiny quirks of his facial expression to the slit and dangerous glean of his eyes. For a moment she stared at him, recognizing a thing, a monster, a deeper self that she had seen in the necromancer before.

"Monster? The kind that overindulges on elfin wine, apparently."

A sick smile twisted coyly over his face. "And _other_ elfin things. Speaking of elves, they know something's _wrong_ with you, but not what..." Aegis leaned back on her heels and winced, looking at him wide wide and appreciative eyes. Xzar gave a vicious, delighted sneer. She wanted answers but feared them. Deep down, perhaps she already knew. "I wonder if they'd still _love_ you should they learn-" His eyes narrowed when he saw a note of mischievousness in her expression. "What are you-?"

"Tell me a story about rabbits, Xzar," she countered slyly.

A shock ran through the man's spine and his eyes opened wide, his mouth hanging open dumbly for a moment. Then animation returned to him. "I know of dragons with feet like rabbits, 'tis true, I swear!"

Aegis grinned, and though she could see no sign of the buried serpent in Xzar's face, she was sure it was both cognizant and reasonably miffed.

"What? Whaaaattt?" he whined at the look she gave him, not understanding where it came from.

"I'm afraid you might be just a little cute," she told him.

"I am most _definitely_ cute," he reprimanded her. "I am adorably terrifying. And terrifyingly adorable! And adrrifyingly teorable. That's because: I am Xzar." He beamed at her.

"Alright, mister adriffyingly teorable, I'm going to give you some privacy so you can bathe and dress yourself. Good luck."

"WAIT!" he shrieked as she turned to leave. Aegis blinked and looked back at him. He stared dumbly after her a moment, then looked at the ceiling, his feet, both his hands, and out the window. Aegis, who had seen such a display before, knew that Xzar was merely crazy and had not actually forgotten he'd been mid-conversation. She waited patiently. After a long moment, an answer as innocuous and lucid as his description of hair cream emerged: "Do I have clean underwear this time?" he asked her.

"You do," she reassured him.

He squealed happily, hugging his blankets around him. "You ah dah bestest mummy evah!" he gushed.

Aegis rolled her eyes, gave him a salute, and then headed out the door. "Your spellbook's under the bed," she called quietly over her shoulder. She heard a thud behind her and some flailing about in the blankets before finally,

"Ooh, so it is!"

Aegis closed the door behind her and then turned around to see a curious looking Imoen standing down the hallway just to her left. "Was that _Xzar_?" she asked.

Aegis froze, caught red-handed. Oh no. "Er..." she managed.

Imoen rolled her eyes and made a face. "And here I thought you'd got lucky last night!" Imoen whined. "You were getting along so well with that cute bard and everything. But it turns out you just got too drunk to figure out what room you ought to sleep in!"

Aegis stared at Imoen, mind trying to process what she was hearing. Click. Click. Click.

"I had to sleep with Montaron!" Imoen was complaining. "He snored all night too, it was _terrible_!"

Click. Click. Click. Ding! _Dear sweet Oghma, don't let her realize I rented a nicer room. Don't let her realize there is only one bed. _"Um..."

"Don't ever do that to me again Aegy!" Imoen first pouted, then laughed. "We're sisters! We gotta stick together! Besides, who knows, he might try to steal your eyes in your sleep or something!" She winked.

"I'm sorry?"

"You bet your ass you are! Oh I think we should move back to the Sheaf or, you know, at least the Juggler. You didn't rent for more than one night, did you?"

"I did not," Aegis continued.

"I'll help you pack!"

"NO!" Aegis shouted, then gulped when Imoen nearly jumped out of her skin. "No," she repeated to her sister's confused gaze, "I told him to take a bath! Don't go in there unless you want to be eternally mentally scarred by the sight of a naked madman trying to bathe himself!"

Imoen's mouth rounded out into a sympathetic 'o.' She gave Aegis a pat on the shoulder. "Well then, let's get you some breakfast!"

Aegis nodded and followed Imoen, praying all the while to Oghma.


	13. Dear Lord Lathander

Very short chapter :)

I hate the horizontal rulebars for this thing.

* * *

_"Daddy, when is killing bad and when is it good? How can you tell the difference?"_

_Gorion looked up from the story he'd been reading aloud, down to the young girl who was drawing pictures at his feet. They were on the steps of the library, and the air was fresh. Years ago those questions would have unsettled him, caused him to doubt the judgement he'd made when he'd brought her to the Keep. Now he saw them differently; recognized them as the learning process of a very warm and brilliant child who was seeking to surmount her spiritual handicap._

_"Killing is never good, my child."_

_She looked up at him in surprise. "But in the stories, good people kill stuff all the time! And people cheer them, and give them honors, and there's gold-! I mean they are killing evil people, aren't they?"_

_"Killing is _never_ good," he repeated, "even when the person killed is very evil."_

_She was puzzled. "But then why do good people do it, and why are they cheered? And animals kill stuff, are they being evil?"_

_"Often killing is necessary, but it's never good," he explained. "We kill to survive, to eat, to protect, and to ensure evil deeds are not repeated. Sometimes we kill wrongly; sometimes it is difficult to tell whether killing is necessary or merely selfish. It is not easy to tell the difference. But it is important that you should know: killing is never good. And if you ask me, it should be used sparingly, and only when there is little other choice."_

_"But those adventures killed loads of goblins, that's not sparingly."_

_"The goblins would have killed them in turn."_

_"Should they have tried talking to the goblins first?"_

_"Perhaps," Gorion said after he thought about the question for a bit, "although goblins are so little inclined to behave themselves that it is not a far stretch to assume _most_ would attempt to either kill or betray the adventurers."_

_"So," Aegis said slowly, uncomfortably, "so it's very hard to tell. A lot of times you guess. And even when you think you know, sometimes you don't. But how am I supposed to guess, if normal people can't?"_

_Gorion watched her over the edge of his book for a long moment. Most days, Gorion thought, Aegis was not the only one of them who was learning. She asked many questions other children took for granted, and pointed out holes in moral reasoning that most men had no qualms with. It was her father's taint, ironically, that made Aegis the most sensitive to moral scruples out of all the men and women he had ever met._

_"Would it be acceptable for you to kill me?" he asked her._

_"No!" she exclaimed, horrified._

_"What about a red dragon?"_

_"...I don't know..." she hesitated. "The books say red dragons are bad."_

_"Goblins?"_

_"I... the _stories_ say so..." she fumbled again._

_Gorion considered this. "I think, my beautiful child, that if you focus on life as sacred- as you are already doing-, as opposed to thinking on what lives are expendable, than you may turn out the wisest of us all in this area."_

_She blinked up at him uncertainly. He smiled. She trusted his judgement, and smiled back at him. Then she blinked. "There's a feather in your hair again," she told him helpfully. _

_Gorion jumped, combed quickly through his hair, and quickly detached the offending article. "Pigeons," he muttered, and turned a mildly impatient eye skyward._

* * *

Existence was peace-less turmoil. There was no rest, because there could be no detached observance. There was churning, painful churning, between two points and two arguments, and two holds; or more than two, perhaps, there may have been another, a darker one, but it did not get much say. There was going to be no release, no choice, no interference permitted. There had already been interference aplenty; and now the dance of the gods was completing itself. Not Oghma, not Deneir; neither Milil nor Gond; not Mystra would be permitted to decide these matters; they were not the god or gods in question.

Existence spun, and churned, but the memories returned and would not release. Over and over they plummeted, back and forth, up and down; every direction was almost down. But release? No. Never. Never could the memories be given up. NEVER. There could be no neutrality, no silence, no stillness-!

A word was spoken, an acceptance, an affirmation- adoring and sure. Existence trembled with it, with the thunder, with the certainty, with the pact, and the promise, and the binding.

Existence.

Astral.

Ether.

_Life._

He took in a hard, shuddering gasp, his whole body clenching violently. Then, his lungs and stomach filled with quickly receding rot- grime- he coughed and sputtered and writhed and then finally vomited over the side of the altar. For a moment there was just whirling chaos; his mind fragmented and whirling. He did not know who he was; there was no sense of self, of identity, of anything other than animal life. His arms trembled violently. He had been cursed, or something similar. Damaged. And then flayed open by well-meaning gods who could never quite comprehend mortal suffering.

Ah. There was some sense of self. Disillusionment, pain, suffering. He was _alive_, and he knew it with a little more sureness than a beast might have. He was alive, and he had been dead, and the gods were unhappy but they had permitted it. He didn't know why. They hadn't intended to. He became aware of an exhausted chuckle, and he looked up to see a man standing there, a man dressed in garishly scarlet robes with a kind but shrewd face and dancing eyes.

"You are lucky I am a skillful negotiator, old friend," the man told him mischievously. "_And_ that I managed to reach you before the day was out. It certainly helped in the bargaining process." His eyes softened. "I only wish I had been a day sooner..."

Breathing heavily, with scarcely a thought to his name, the revived man could only stare for a moment. Then another pang shot through him and he vomited again. A hand settled soothingly on his back. "Do you know me?" the man asked with great concern. He raked his mind, conscious of the flow of memories that seemed elusive beneathe his grasp. Then he recalled the pull of the gods as they had tried to disentangle him from those memories, and he clung to them with a jealous fervor.

Blue eyes opened up again and he looked at the man shakily."E-... Elmin-s-ster..." he slurred.

The red-robed man smiled gently and nodded. "Indeed I am. And _you_, my dear friend, now owe me several very expensive diamonds and a number of rare celestial feathers."

He choked and sloppily rubbed his face, the loosely beaded strands of his hair clicking slightly against his shoulder. "Where is... W-why...? Why have you...?"

"Well I was sternly ordered not to," Elminster mused, "and so therefore, of course, I had to. Which, given that Mystra was sympathetic both to Oghma and to your suffering, I suppose is _precisely_ why she told me not to. Oh dear. Am I becoming predictable...?"

The revived man half laughed, half sobbed, then moaned low. "I-I'm not whole," he sputtered weakly. "I'm not-" He sifted through those memories, trying to remember somethign important.

"That blade was meant for killing children of Bhaal, old friend, not common men," Elminster explained, and blue eyes snapped immediately up to his face.

_Oh gods. Gods, please, please, was she...?_

"I'm afraid it might have been a bit rude to your spirit. And there are cosmic forces at work." He settled down unceremoniously on the side of the alter, offering a helping hand as the other man tried to sit. Pain and disorientation were making that difficult. "The lords of death are stymieing any attempts to interfere in their matters, especially attempts by the other pantheons," Elminster continued. "And I'm afraid _your_ meddling made doing anything for you almost impossible. I did warn you, you know."

"Elminster..." the other man hissed, his mind racing with a thousand fears and horrors.

The red-robed man chuckled. "I owed you, old friend. But I warn you this was no clean miracle. It took a great deal of bartering, and you are not free. There are... conditions." Elminster gestured to their surroundings as they spoke, and the revived man realized that they were neither in a temple of Oghma nor Mystra, but rather of Lathander. He noted this, but distantly. He was still trying to piece together his memories of his death. "You aren't to interfere any longer; You can't even be _seen_. Do you understand what I am telling you? One word, one glance, one _touch.._. You soul would be forfeit-"

"_Elminster!_" The wizard blinked in surprise. Gorion looked at him with wild blue eyes, his arms shaking, jaw trembling. "Where is she?" he nearly whimpered. "Where is my... my _child_?"

_Foster Child_. Elminster sighed. He was not the only one who had become predictable in old age. "Close," he assured the other man.

"She lives...?" He could barely breathe.

The archmage nodded. "Aye."

Gorion shuddered.

Elminster looked at him sympathetically a moment, then rummaged about on his person and drew out a long-necked bottle and two wooden mugs. "Here. Let's get a little wine in you first. You're as gray as your hair."

"Wh..." Gorion breathed, shuddering. "Why Lathander...? Why would the Morninglord...?"

"Lathander is a diety intolerant of inaction that permits evil to prosper," Elminster noted. "I suppose he wishes you to understand the severity of your mistake, that your certainty might permit you to rest. And your great granddam-"

Gorion laughed.

Elminster eyed him before holding out the cup of wine. "What's funny?" he queried.

Gorion contemplated the offered wine and the wizard's red robes, both of which reminded him of his child, and a smile eased over his face. "I made no mistake," he murmured weakly. "I made no mistake in choosing to raise my daughter."

_Foster Daughter,_ Elminster chose not to remind him. "I knew you would say that; so I supposed you wouldn't mind a difference in philosophy that worked out to your favor, mm? Drink, friend. It'll put some warmth back in your bones."


	14. Dear Lord Cyric

Jaheira was reserved that morning, and she spoke to Aegis in such a civil manner that the younger woman could hope there might be some kind of peace between them. The group of six had decided to head out early that morning to deal with some bandits in the area. They didn't discuss the happenings of the night before just yet, and Aegis was using a spare short sword they had looted on the way in to Beregost.

The short sword was unfamiliar in Aegis's hands, although she had trained with un-sharpened specimens in the past. She would have to ask Jaheira about what had happened to her axe and the dead dwarf's, but she didn't want to possibly shatter the peace by bringing up the assassination attempt just yet. They had waylaid several small bandit camps through a mixture of Aegis's tracking, Jaheira's natural awareness, and Montaron's familiarity with the tactical positioning of bandit camps.

By noon they had made a tidy haul of scalps ("Yuck," grimaced Imoen) and ill-gotten goods. Khalid was saying something about tracking down the previous owners of certain effects. Imoen and Montaron were trying to make him see reason, but neither the first's charms nor the second's growls seemed to have any effect on the stoic fighter. Jaheira was glaring at Xzar (who appeared to be chasing down rabbits for their lungs again) and muttering to herself in Elfin.

Montaron was looting a corpse when the adventuring troupe was suddenly counter-waylaid by a larger group of bandits. He had been near the edge of a clearing and was the first to get jumped. Aegis was nearest and heard his startled oaths. Then two men were on top of him forcing blades towards his skull, and another was darting up alongside him with a crossbow. The bandit aimed down at Montaron's forehead.

Aegis stiff armed the man out of the way so hard that bones crackled. No less than twelve bandits were pouring out of the jungle. Imoen spun around to aim her shortbow, and Khalid and Jaheira were moving to help them. Xzar popped out of a nearby bush crying delightedly, "Here I am!" and then fired off some sort of green beam of light. Another one of the men moved in to tango with Aegis, only to be surprised when a raccoon dropped suddenly out of the canopy onto his head and sent his skullcap down over his eyes.

Aegis shook her head, looked down at one of the bandits on Montaron, and then drew back her leg and gave the man a sharp kick in the ribs. The halfling knifed first one man, then the other. Aegis dragged him out from underneath them by the shoulder.

He coughed and winced at a bruise to his ribs, and then laughed blackly up at her. "Can't resist the ol' halfling charm, eh? Woulda left _you _to th' crows."

Aegis blinked at him, shrugged, and then pinched his backside. "Nope." Montaron, who had landed on a rock when the bandits had pounced him, yelped and then glared daggers after her.

"Ye fuggin ugly nature troll-" he growled. She winked at him. He couldn't help but laugh.

It took them several minutes to dispose of the bandits, and when they were done with this they wisely moved location to a nearby stream where they hoped they might be able to have lunch in peace.

As they settled down to discuss their next move, Jaheira passed a scroll found on the dead assassin's body across the tree stump they were using for a table. Aegis blinked and unrolled it to read it. Montaron and Imoen leaned close.

"Hoi, it's addressed to 'persons of unsavory persuasions,' " Imoen noted. "I guess that means you, Montaron!"

The Halfling growled and rubbed his chin at the notice, curious about why he hadn't heard of the bounty himself. "That's a nice price on your head, girly, and getting nicer."

"That's q-quite enough," Khalid stuttered, "must you always be so- so-"

"-unsavory?" Jahiera prompted with a growl.

Aegis shook her hiead in disbelief. "This is insane. I'm the orphaned ward of a Candlekeep monk. Why the hell is my life worth this price?" Her brows pinched together, and she reflexively reached into her armor to feel a lock of silver hair. "How long have I been in danger?" she asked in a softer voice, trying to piece this mystery together. "Was this why he never let me leave Candlekeep? Was he hiding me from something?" She looked to the two half elves, but Khalid shook his head unknowingly.

"Your foster f-father was a v-very p-private man," Khalid said slowly. "W-we read b-between the lines and w-wagered something was amiss. But he never c-clarified."

A heavy weight settled on Aegis's shoulders. Gorion had died for her. Intentionally. And he'd been protecting her from something monstrous long before that. Why hadn't he told her? Had been trying to shield her innocence? Well she would have appreciated some insight into what the hell was hunting her, now!

"Who were yer real parents, girly?" Montaron prodded. Aegis shrugged helplessly. "Then maybe ye've got some blood in ya that others' want ta' keep dead, an' yer the only one who ain't been told." A giggle from the nearby Xzar made a chill run up Aegis's spine, and she barely heard Montaron muse, "Could be a noble, or some fool wizard's bastard brat. Nice o' th' monk ta leave ya without a clue."

Aegis shook her head and then bitterly rolled up the scroll and stuffed it away. Jaheira lifted a brow. "We're here to investigate Nashkel and that's what we're going to do," the ranger grumbled.

"You don't want to try and trace this bounty?" the elf asked curiously, because she'd expected Aegis to try and derail their quest.

"Where would I look?" the girl snarled. "Just because I was raised in a church doesn't mean I'm an idiot! The local underground wouldn't know two shits about the horned man. Look at this bounty; it's written out like a day job for planting pansies. It's passed through at least a dozen hands. We need more clues. Well, if trouble is going to follow us anyway then let's go to Nashkel and stuff our noses in it. Maybe we'll come out with a scent or two."

A flash of respect passed before Jaheira's eyes. "We'll send word to friends," she decided, "but we'll be discrete. Perhaps we can gather a bit of information for you."

"G-gorion mentioned he t-thought you would be c-comfortable on the r-road. Still, I-I confess I'm s-surprised you're so e-enthusiastic about our q-quest after never t-traveling before," Khalid noted.

"I never belonged cooped up in a library," Aegis grumbled bitterly, "and now I see why Gorion had to keep me in one for so long. I'm grateful. But obviously he can't protect me anymore, and I haven't a scrap of the fighting knowledge he had. And that monster still walked through his spells like-" She grimaced and clenched her fists. "I need to learn a hell of a lot more about everything or I'm going to get myself killed. We shouldn't stay here more than a few days."

"With that, I can agree," Jahiera noted, then turned a critical glance at Montaron, who was still studying the space the scroll had been in and thumbing his chin. "Though perhaps we should travel separately."

Aegis frowned, confused at what she had meant. Gorion and Jaheira herself had both advised traveling in a decent sized group. Why split up, unless-? Oh. _Oh_.

"You gotta problem, elfy?" the halfling growled, standing up.

"Do _you_?" Jaheira asked and remained seated. "I would not put it above you, short as you are, to attempt to collect on such a bounty."

"Ugh," moaned Xzar from behind them, glancing disgusted over his shoulder at Jaheira. "And what makes you so wonderfully nooobbblleee? Your pointy eeaaars? I tried that once you know..."

"As for you, madman, you would be wise to keep your tongue in your head," she retorted, arms still crossed over her chest.

"Ho! Bold ya' are, ya self-righteous wench-" Montaron growled, slipping a hand behind himself and slowly unsheathing a dirk. "Best watch yer words."

She gave her head a toss. "You are a nuisance and a mistake waiting to happen; but if I thought you were any true threat I would have already rooted and gutted your miserable dark hid," she growled.

"Dear-" Khalid tried to calm her, standing up to come up to her side. Xzar had homed in on the conversation and was leering excitedly at the two. "P-please do be reasonable, we have only-"

"I have been plenty reasonable," she told him, rising to her feet at last. Imoen spied Montaron slicking a leaf of something either poisonous or narcotic over his dirk. She gave Aegis an alarmed look. The other girl took the hint. "The man is a necromancer, a practitioner of the most foul of wizardring arts, and the halfling has-"

"-had enough out of you-!" Montaron hissed, and with surprising speed he dashed towards the druid. Khalid was drawing his new sword in an instant, Xzar's fingertips flashed green and he gave a manic cackle, and simultaneously Jaheira summoned forward three spears of wood to take out both. Imoen covered her face. Aegis swore.

Khalid saw Aegis move. "Wait-!" he tried to tell his wife, though his warning was immediately eclipsed by Xzar's shriek of: "Monty!"

Then the entire party froze as Aegis, wincing with pain, turned her gaze from a grouchy Jaheira down to a very startled looking Montaron. She'd dashed between them and taken the druid's spears to the forearm and shoulder, though she had not been severely wounded by them. On Aegis's other side, Montaron's dirk had sunk three inches into the ranger's waist.

"Shit," the halfling muttered in surprised dismay. Aegis grunted.

"Aegis-" Jaheira began angrily and was interrupted by Khalid's, "-The blade!" as he had a clear line of vision to the injury that Jaheira did not. Aegis tried to change her footing, but the halfling hissed at her, jumping to her side and putting his other hand restrictively to her hip.

"Don't move, stupid!" he instructed, changing his grip on the knife.

"You s-stabbed-d-!" Khalid shouted in fury as the entire party converged on her position. Xzar began babbling erratically, spell forgotten.

"Don't you think I fucking know that!?" Montaron roared back. "Don't move!" that last was an order directed at Aegis. He started pulling the blade out as the girl winced. Her eyelids felt heavy, and as the dirk slipped free she swooned slightly. Imoen and Jaheira caught her and tried to push her upright. She blinked hazily a moment and then her legs gave out beneath her. Imoen eeped and nearly tripped and Montaron was almost crushed beneath her. He and Khalid helped the other two get her down to the floor.

"Ungodly mongrel!" Jahiera hissed, eyes flaming, when she realized what must be wrong. "What did you do?"

Montaron didn't respond because he had grabbed a vial and was uncorking it with his teeth. He spit the cork away. "Get 'er mouth open," he ordered.

"You will not be feeding her anything!" Jahiera uttered in a most deadly voice. "What poison did you use?"

"Don't be daft, an' do as I says!" Montaron hissed back. "Get her mouth open 'afore we both can live ta regret what a sodding bitch ye' are!"

Seeing Jaheira was about to argue and that Aegis's face had gone pale, Imoen shoved the older woman aside and wedged her thumb between her sister's teeth. Khalid almost protested but then thought better of it and pressed his hand over the wound in her side to thwart the bleeding. Montaron came up to them and supported the ranger's head with one hand so he could control the force-feeding and poured the concoction between her lips with the other.

When Aegis had been fed the last drop of serum there was a tense wait in which the injured girl writhed and Imoen tried to help Khalid in applying pressure to the wound. Xzar watched wide-eyed from the side-lines. He understood death very well; he'd made the very poison and antidote that had gone into this joyous occasion; but there was little he could do to preserve life in an emergency even if he were inclined to do. After a moment he began gnawing on his fingers excitedly.

Then suddenly whatever pall had been cast upon the ranger seemed to break. Color blushed back to her cheeks and her eyes opened fully again. She winced in the sunlight and then groaned and grimaced at the wounds in her forearm, shoulder, and side. Montaron, Imoen, and Khalid all released visible sighs of relief, though Imoen's was the only one that was audible. Then Montaron glared at Jaheira. "Well? She's bleedin', aren't you going to do somethin'?"

"How _dare_ you, little man," Jahiera growled, leaning over Aegis and placing her hands gently on the wounds. "How dare you act as if this were _my_ fault!" She muttered words in druidic and the wounds flooded with life energy and sealed. Xzar wrinkled his nose.

"Maybe if ya could just leave well enough alone instead o' drownin' us all in your simperin-"

"You attempted to KILL me!" she bellowed hotly.

"Like ya weren't thinkin' the same- ya said as much ya-"

"Guys," Aegis croaked, and she managed to get the attention of the two seething faction leaders. "Guys can we not do the 'killing each other' thing any more today? Cause I have a really bad headache right now and would appreciate if I didn't get stabbed again. Might, ya know, aggravate it."

Montaron growled. Jahiera pursed her lips and looked ready to say something. Khalid grabbed her arm and shared a surprisingly stern look with her, one that seemed to deflate her rage slightly. A moment passed in which Imoen tried to help Aegis to a full sitting position and then the party pulled her back to her feet. She waved them off and brushed down her clothing, mumbling that she was fine. "You could have died," Jaheira disagreed.

Montaron sneered up at the druid. Aegis shrugged. "Yeah that's happening to me a lot lately. Almost dying," she brushed off the incident like she'd brushed off her clothing. "Thanks for fixing me back up. Both of you." Then she rubbed unhappily at her temple. Khalid looked at her.

"Wh-what now?" he asked. The party had just turned on itself, with two members clearly trying to kill one another and two more ready to back up. Could they continue onward like this? Clearly not.

Aegis sighed. "Look if anyone wants to leave, anyone can leave. I'm going to Nashkel. Anyone who wants to go with me, can go with me. Anyone who wants to go alone can go alone. But as for anyone traveling with me and as long as _everyone_ is traveling with me," she turned a baleful glare on the whole party (well, everyone but Imoen), "we put a cap on this thing. No one kills anyone else. And that's final."

"But-!" Xzar protested, because this was the most absurd blasphemy he'd ever heard.

Aegis shot him a look. He cowered from her. Montaron snorted. "Sounds fair," he growled. "S'long as goody-two-shoes over here ain't baitin' for a fight."

Khalid frowned "I b-beg your pardon but your ill t-temper is n-not-"

Xzar sneered "Is n-not wh-what?" he asked. Khalid stiffened at the taunt.

"Silence, you revolting, inelegant-"

"It's yer bitch who can't seem to keep her tongue in her head," Montaron growled.

"Hokay, that's it. You're all out of the club. I'm leaving you here. Have fun with your lives and all that, good luck and so forth," Aegis said, picking up her pack and starting to walk of. "'Scept Immy, yer stuck with me, 'cmon, let's go. We need to find some more friends."

Imoen blinked, staring after her sister in surprise. She looked at all four party members who were gaping after Aegis in disbelief. Then she shrugged and pulled her own pack on and bounced after Aegis "Wait up!" she called "Wait up, I'm comming!"

Khalid frowned and took Jaheira's arm, gently pulling her aside. The two elves shared a look with one another. Xzar turned a glare down at  
Montaron. "We need them!" he hissed in a disapproving whisper. "Who is going to stand between me and bears Monty? Who? I cannot cast in these conditions!  
I demand a raise!"

"Shut up ya damned fool," The halfling whispered back, knowing full well what the necromancer meant. This was the only reason they'd sought out a traveling group in the first place; the roads were harder for a wizard and a thief than they were with an accompanying warrior, or even for two fighting types like Khalid and Jahiera. The elves would have no trouble getting to Nashkel by themselves; it was their dead friend's ward they were truly concerned about. But Montaron and Xzar needed a meat shield. "We're in Beregost," Montaron thought rapidly. "We'll contact Kagain. He's workin caravans 'round here, and no doubt we can agree to a bit o' work to get him down to Nashkel."

There, that was a solid solution, and Montaron was proud of it. No more pointy-eared problems, or brazen golden-haired twats. Aegis had gotten them to Beregost, and Montaron and Xzar could make the rest of the journey from there.

Only apparently that answer wasn't enough for Xzar. The man's face suddenly grew dark, his irises blazing a dark emerald green, and his eyes closed to slits. "No, my aggravating little worm-like companion," the necromancer said in a very low voice, and his next words were clearly enunciated and almost patronizing, as if he were bestowing some great favor upon Montaron just by saying them. "We stay with the child of Bhaal."

"The hell you blatherin' about, ya fool wizard?" Montaron growled, but his face had paled a few shades. The dark thing that sometimes writhed its way up to Xzar's surface was as crazy as all the rest of him, but it was insane in a dark way, a _wrong_ way. Montaron was a cut-throat thug and he knew it; but Xzar classed into a whole different level of evil. Montaron had seen him do things that still made his stomach churn when he thought about them. "Kagain's a good plan and ya know it. Ya can't make me stick my foot back in that hornet's nest and ya ain't got a death wish, so ya won't leave me behind."

"Oh, don't I?" Xzar purred, eyelids heavy, and Montaron turned a few more shades grayer. "Unless perhaps I know something you don't?"

"What you gettin' at?" Montaron grumbled.

"We go with her. Even if it includes tolerating Harpers. Trust me, little fool. We're going to need her."

"She's trouble. She's got a bounty on her head and it's gonna double again, I'd bet my blade on it."

Xzar's eyes darkened and for a moment Montaron could suddenly feel cold fingers grasping at his skin, all over him, clawing at his throat and face. "Shit-!" he gasped, but then Xzar lost his focus. The necromancer's eyes opened wide again and he looked after some sound he'd heard in the distance. Maybe Imoen laughing at a joke. Xzar pouted and then looked unhappily back at Montaron.

"I like them much, much better than I like you!" he shrieked childishly. "Apologize, Monty! Apologize at once!"

"To who, ya daft cracker!?" Montaron gasped, unsettled and still trying to wipe the feeling of freezing gold fingers from her skin. "Ain't no one-"

"You're terrible! You're terrible and I hate you, and I'm leaving! They smell much nicer than you anyway, you know." And with that he picked up the hem of his robes as if it were a skirt, and ran after the two absent girls. He was the first of the four to rejoin them.

Montaron stared after him, gaping with one hand raised up as if to grab him and stop him. He was so confused that he stayed frozen in place for a very long moment, firstly trying to figure out what the Nine Hells had just happened and secondly trying to figure out why it surprised him so much. Then he realized that Xzar was showing preference for the company of a living thing, and that was a bit too much for a sane mine to handle right away.

He recognized, of course, that both girls seemed quite tolerant of the necromancer's madness; but tolerance was common in a profession where madmen were the instruments of the trade. The startling aspect was that Xzar seemed to like both girls- goofy twats with nice hair and softy upbringings- and that if Montaron didn't like them and Xzar did then well the universe might have imploded for all the sense it was making.

It made his head hurt.

"By Cyric," he growled to himself, rubbing his face, but then maybe Xzar really did know something he didn't, and was just waiting for the right moment to strike. That made more sense than this did. A rough cough came from nearby. He turned to see the two elves standing there, Jaheira in front. "Yeah?" he growled. "What?"

She did not say anything for a very long moment. She wanted to preface this with how badly she hated the halfling, but she knew if she started she would not be able to stop. Instead, she stiffly raised a hand. "Truce?" she asked.

Montaron stared at her in disbelief. He looked after where the wizard had fled to, then back at Jaheira. "What's yer game?" he growled.

Jaheira didn't trust herself to answer without bashing the halfling's face in, so she said nothing.

A long moment passed in hostile silence, but Montaron started to relax a little. He knew the elfin twat couldn't risk angering Aegis again. The woman's old friend had died and his last request had been that she look after his kid. Well Aegis might have been willing to walk away, but Khalid and Jaheira weren't. They'd behave. The more he thought about it, the more relaxed he felt. He could leave at any time, as soon as Nashkel was fixed, or earlier. But the elves were stuck with Aegis and would have to follow certain rules to keep in her good favor. After a moment the halfling smirked and spat at the ground. "Fine," he growled laughingly. "Truce."

He stared off after the necromancer. A short distance through the forest he moved to belt his dirk, but then stopped when he realized it was still crusted in blood. He paused and looked at the blade, marking how the upper three inches were splashed with red. A frown tugged at his face. He wiped the blade off on the nearby plants.

Bounty wasn't high enough. It'd double, he felt it in his gut. And then it would double again. And then? Maybe then. If he felt like it. If that fool wizard would finally let him.

He wiped sweat from his brow, rubbed a bruise in his shoulder from the earlier fight, and then cursed to himself. He didn't pull punches. Not like elves. Was the girl's own fault for getting in the way. Wasted a good poison and a good antidote, too. He'd have to force Xzar to make another set.


	15. Dear Lady Sune

"I think there might be something wrong with your wizard," the bard pointed out, detaching from his hair the sticky black gooey thing Xzar had just pitched at him. He grimaced in distaste.

"_Might_ be?" at least three of the party members asked, and then Montaron laughed.

"Aye, well we ain't exactly be swimmin' in wizards now, eh?" the thief asked, sharpening the point of his dirk.

"It's ruined! They're all ruined, they cooked wrong, all bad-wrong-bad-wrong-bad-blag-drong- BLECK." Xzar dropped to the ground in a huff and plopped his chin on his hand, nearly steaming with frustrated disappointment. Jaheira rubbed her brow and murmured a prayer in Elfish for patience with fools and monsters; and perhaps- Aegis didn't quite hear clearly- for better wisdom to be granted to Gorion's ward. She was currently tending to Imoen's broken ankle.

Aegis sighed and came up beside the bard- Garrick- with a cloth soaked in water. He took it thankfully. "Why did he just do that? I don't know what I did to deserve THAT."

Montaron snorted. "Ya ask too many questions. No one knows what goes through that blasted skull of his. Least of all the wizard himself!" Garrick regarded the discarded mass curiously for a moment. Aegis walked over to Xzar.

"Hey," she told him. He kept seething at the ground "Xzar? Xzar." He looked up at her at last, pale green eyes pouting. "No more throwing things." The necromancer frowned at her for a long moment before looking back to the ground and making a depressed noise of affirmation. She patted his shoulder and walked off.

* * *

Garrick approached them the day before with a request to assist a beautiful woman by the name of Silke, who had been bemoaning a horrible fate she expected at the hands of three thugs. Xzar made a gagging face at the tale and Montaron muttered something about Aegis trying to get laid (Garrick had been the very same bard she'd flirted and danced with a few nights previously). But the quest seemed innocent enough and so Aegis agreed in hopes of earning the party some extra coin and doing a good deed.

When the men arrived Silke spoke loudly over their voices and commanded Aegis's party not to hear their lying words. But Montaron, Jaheira, and Aegis _had_ heard something. They'd heard the three men tell Silke they'd secured gems for her. Silke was using Aegis to rob these men, silence them, and get her trophies at a much cheaper price.

Yeah, that wasn't going to happen.

Aegis turned around and looked the woman dead in the eyes. "Do I look like a stupid thug to you, or that I need four hundred coin so badly?" she'd told the pretty woman. "Pay them."

Silke's face turned from one of surprise to one of simmering rage. She'd already drunk a potion and she dropped the vessel to the ground, her hands starting to go through the motions of a spell. "Very well," she hissed, "if I must do it myself, then you can join them!"

Thatw as surprising. Jaheira readied her staff and Montaron drew out his blade. Aegis held still and sneered, but it was a taunting expression, a victorious one. "You're not very observant for would-be thief, are you?" she asked.

The woman looked at her in disgust, summoning up what an alarmed Imoen realized might very well be a potent lightning spell. "I'm going to make you regret this, and this potion made sure your little rogue friends can't get in any cheap shots!"

Aegis laughed. "I stationed my wizard _behind_ you for a reason."

"She did," came a delighted coo by Silke's cheek. The woman stiffened and then suddenly there were blue glowing fingers about her throat as a delighted Xzar throttled the life out of her. The others had watched a little morbidly. When he was done her eyes had contracted slightly back into her skull and her skin of her face was drawn and glassy from having all the water and blood frozen within it. With a delighted smile he waited for any hint of breath and then dropped her body unceremoniously on the ground. There was an audible cracking noise as something about her face shattered.

"She deceived me," Garrick mumbled at last.

Xzar jumped at the sound of a human voice, looking up from his kill.

"She tried to kill all of us!" one of the gem-purveyors exclaimed. "The hell? She seemed perfectly sweet and reasonable when we were negotiating the contract!"

"Ill intent is not always clearly visible from the outside," Jaheira answered. Xzar looked at the druid, the bard, and the men. He looked at Montaron and then quickly his eyes turned to Aegis. She nodded.

"Good work," Aegis told him without disgust. Then she came up to him and pat him on the shoulder, looking down at Silke's remains. "But... you can't have any of her body parts," she added in a much quieter voice.

Xzar fidgeted. "The chill damaged them anyway," he decided at last.

Then she turned to see that Garrick was coming up to her. "You were a friend of hers?" the ranger asked warily.

"I... I just wished to aid a soul in need," the bard said slowly. Then he stood up straighter. "Knowingly or not I played accomplice to this woman. And then I just stood by and watched it happen! I put you and your friends in danger, and I should repay you for my error. Therefore... I am at your service!"

The ranger blinked "Erm... You... really don't have to do that..."

"I do it with joy, ma'am. I think you are an honorable person."

Xzar made a face.

"Can I have _his_ body parts?" he asked.

* * *

Aegis made sure to dispose of the mushy black ooky thing that Xzar had been flinging around before going back to sharpening her axe. "That's a f-fine weap-pon," Khalid noted. "Although of c-curious make. Simple... b-but almost..." he trained off thoughtfully. Aegis smiled at him.

"I've had it for a long time," she explained, "but it came from outside the keep. That's when I realized I wanted to be a ranger, actually."

Imoen laughed from where she was being tended to. "I remember that! Hehe, you were driving Ulraunt _bonkers_. He hated that we lived there at all, much less that we'd go about pestering guests."

"What's this story, then?" Jaheira asked, curious despite herself.

"There was a ranger that came to Candlekeep," Aegis elaborated. "Well he didn't come in the traditional sense. Normally we'd see adventurers running errands for noblemen, or noblemen themselves, or wizards, scholars, scribes, bibliophiles, clerics, and sorcerers. We have a very strict policy about who can enter our walls. They must contribute expensive books to the library." Aegis sighed. "Like... Even now? Me and Imonen wouldn't be able to get back in."

"So what about the ranger?" Garrick asked, leaning forward curiously. "Did he bring some rare volume?"

"No. He was nearly dead when he collapsed outside our walls. He had arrows in his shoulder and he was torn up from head to toe..."

* * *

_"Ye gotta let him in," the tavern keeper said emphatically. "He'll die out there! Hells, will you bring his corpse in?"_

_"We have rules," Ulraunt sniffed haughtily. From their place in the shadow, Imoen made a face. Aegis was peering out through the loop hole down outside the outer wall. The man was sitting now, watching them from beneath his frayed hood, weaving slightly from loss of blood. Whoever he was, he lacked the strength to jerk the arrows from his shoulder. Aegis thought, as she looked at him, that he was very close to death; and will alone kept him on his feet._

_"If you start smiling," Immy warned. "When old smelly Ulraunt is already being so terrible..."_

_"I'm not," Aegis promised, watching the man."_

_"I can't look" Imoen mumbled unhappily. "Is he dead?"_

_"No. And he won't die. Not this time."_

_"I will provide the book to secure his entrance," Gorion was saying, "if the hundreds of others I have provided are insufficient."_

_"Those tomes," Ulraunt reminded him, "paid for something else entirely. Something my predecessor-"_

_"Let him in," begged the priest, who oversaw many very difficult operations on a wide variety of guests each day, but who rarely was faced with such a life-or-death situation as this. "No life deserves this." Beside him, Tethtoril, whom Imoen and Aegis liked much more than Ulraunt, nodded his agreement._

_Ulraunt glanced at them, but then in a rare display his face softened slightly and he nodded. They sent the guards out to help the man up and then quickly brought him inside. By that point he hung limply from their arms. Aegis and Imoen scrambled out of their hiding place so as not be caught. Imoen went to ask Winthrop what would happen to the man. Aegis snuck into the surgery while the nurses were running in and out. She watched as the pulled the arrows from the man's shoulder. They stripped off his damaged clothing piece by piece, using healing spells to keep him alive and then stitching up the wounds that refused to seal. He was an elf, she realized then. The pointed ears were enough, even without the sharp planes of his face. A nurse had found her and chased her out._

_The man had lived. Ulraunt had wanted to cast him out as soon as he could walk, but the other monks begged and bartered with him, and at last it was determined he could stay. For a time they kept him at the surgery; then later they put him up in the tavern. Aegis continued to ask Gorion about him, but the old man would always deflect the topic. Frustrated, Aegis had 'forced' Imoen to let her help with the chores (something that roused Winthrop's suspicions), just so she could get a glimpse or two of the man._

_He seemed to notice when she was watching. He had many weapons on him- a bow that was whole and another that was shattered; a sword at his belt, and lastly an old hunting axe; a utilitarian tool and nothing more, a weapon for splitting wood and dressing deer meat. Aegis had tried talking to him, but Withrop had chased her out and forbidden her from bothering the man any longer. Afterwards, Imoen would explain he refused to speak to anyone. Aegis asked Gorion to tell her stories about men and women who made the forest their home, but surprisingly Gorion refused her request and asked her to get her mind off the ranger._

_The whole situation was incredibly frustrating; Aegis didn't know why but something about the man was significant to her. Perhaps in multiple ways. She felt that he existed in some kind of waking death; that death followed him like a cloud, a scent. Only much later would Gorion explain that the elf had lost his soul mate, his second half, and that- for an elf- he would be incomplete forever after. But she hadn't known that then._

_Sometimes- though rarely- the ranger would come out of the tavern. He would walk the gardens with his hood up and his face hidden, observing the plants and trees. Most of the time Aegis would be with Gorion, and he would sternly tell her not to 'bother' the man. This was frustrating. She remembered feeling some small resentment. She knew the man seemed to notice her, to see her; and she was overwhelmingly curious._

_Then one day she'd been playing out on her own and Imoen had been doing extra chores for placing a piece of stinky cheese in a noble's bedroom, and she'd seen the man. He'd been sitting under a tree, and- to her surprise- doing a little bit of magic to mend an injured bird. Aegis had been incredibly surprised. She watched as quietly and unobtrusively as she could, full attention on the task before her. He'd noticed her, she knew, but he didn't say anything. A long minute had passed in silence._

_Then he'd lifted a hand, and silently beckoned her forward. When she came up she saw that the little bird's neck had been mended but one of it's wings was still lying at a very peculiar angle. The elf had gestured for her to come closer and closer until she was within arm's reach, and then he'd taken her hands in his and made her hold the bird carefully as he went through the process of setting and then healing it's tiny wing. It took a long time for the healing to complete, as rangers were no skilled magic users like druids or clerics. But in the end the bird had righted itself and flown off into the sky._

_Aegis had let out a very un-lady-like curse word when she heard her father calling. The elf looked up, then shooed her off. She bit her lip and ran unhappily towards her father._

_The next day the ranger had left Candlekeep without warning, as silently and mysteriously as he'd came. He'd left almost no trace of his presence. Aegis had been furious. Her mystified father had watched her play angrily by breaking stones against one another and kicking over clumps of grass, no doubt confused as to what had made her so upset. Moments later her anger vanished. She ran up to a nearby tree- the tree she'd helped heal the bird at the day before- and found a little present waiting for her. It was the ranger's axe, just as she'd seen it in those very first days. Unremarkable, unadorned, but elfin._

_And perhaps Gorion had realized how badly he'd misinterpreted Aegis's interest in the elf, when she ran up to him moments later proclaiming she wanted to be a ranger._

* * *

"Oh PLEASE, you are GORGING my sweet tooth," Xzar moaned unhappily.

Montaron rolled his eyes, but the story hadn't interested him much to begin with, so he'd tuned the majority of it out and left it to the enjoyment of the half-elves and the human bard.

"Splendid story! I always say: Make short the miles with talk and smiles!" Garrick complemented sunnily. Xzar nearly died gagging. "So your axe, it was made by the elf?"

"Yeh goodie-goodies make me sick," the halfling grumbled.

"That might explain why the iron crisis hasn't affected it," Jaheira noted, looking down at the recently repaired weapon. In the end it had required no blacksmith to fix, only a tight vice of leather wraps to hold its shape, and a careful druid with the ability to heal wood. "In that case I do not advise 'trading up' to any more intimidating fare. If it's steel will hold true when all else is crumbling, then it is the surer tool. "

"I'd at least keep it as a backup," Aegis agreed, shooting an amused glance over at Xzar, and passing the weapon to Khalid so that he might inspect its handiwork. There were only a few embellishments to suggest an elfin maker, but he now understood why Aegis had first asked Jaheira to help her repair it as opposed to simply taking the dead dwarf's battleaxe and being done with the matter. "How's your foot, Immy?"

"It's fine! Jaheira's a really good healer!"

"Blahhh!" Xzar said with his tongue out and then flopped dramatically onto his pack.

"Could we perhaps go back and leave him in Beregost before proceeding on to Nashkel?" Garrick suggested.

"Ho, I _wish_," Montaron grumbled and Xzar bristled at the both of them. "But we'd lose a day in travel," he said lovelessly.

"We will not get much farther today but we should pack up and continue while we can," Jaheira noted. "We are too much out in the open and a prime target for the same sort of fodder we disposed of yesterday and the day group could agree this was a wise plan (all except Xzar, who had to be coaxed to follow them by Aegis, Imoen, and Montaron), and so they packed up and moved camp a few miles further along the road to a safer alcove.

* * *

They made a small fire and then organized the night watch in groups of two, Khalid and Garrick, Aegis and Montaron, and Jaheira and Imoen. Then they laid out their sleeping roles around the fire. Aegis plopped her gear down first, eager to get some shut eye before the disruptive second watch. Jaheira settled down on her right side to begin praying or meditating or whatever exactly it was Druids did.

For a moment there was naught but the shuffles of setting up a camp. Then something happened to make Montaron laugh. "Hoping to get some?" he asked lewdly of Garrick, who had- with no ulterior motives to speak of- placed his roll down at Aegis's left. The young man's brow furrowed for a moment till he noticed Aegis was rolling her eyes. Then he laughed.

"Love makes the world go round," he decided, and blushed at the party leader to let her know he meant no foul.

But Xzar, apparently, had had enough of the bard's sickeningly sweet prattle. "That. Is. ENOUGH!" he suddenly shouted. The majority of the party members were used to Xzar randomly hollering nonsense at times, but he was still dangerous enough that they looked up to see what had disturbed him. They observed that Xzar had dropped his things on the ground and stalked directly up to Garrick. "Stop stop STOP stop STOP!"

Garrick grimaced. "Whatever's got in to you now, good sir?" he asked, not sure he wanted to know. Aegis looked down and rubbed her face. Montaron muttered something about the necromancer having his skirts in a wad but he was grinning to himself as he had no love for their newest party member. Imoen screwed up her face in slightly weirded-out amusement.

Xzar had definitely been 'misbehaving' since Garrick joined the party. The necromancer had gotten more talkative and slightly saner, but with these he was being extremely sarcastic and contrary. The high pitched shrieking and childish enthusiasm they'd grown to expect had rarely shown itself over the last few days. No matter how badly Team Elf and Team Unsavory liked to fight with one another, that hatred seemed pitiful next to the sheer disgusted loathing Xzar displayed towards the light-hearted bard.

"That is MINE!" Aegis looked back up at the necromancer from beneath her splayed fingertips.

"What do you refer to?" the bard asked.

"That ground!"

Garrick glanced downward. "I beg your pardon?"

"Beg all you want, I shall not give it to you! That ground is mine- all of it! You must vacate the premises at once! Your dirty, terrible, musical fae-sparkles have gotten all over it! And I won't stand for it any longer! I'll call the guard I will!"

Garrick stared at the necromancer numbly for a moment, then look wide-eyed at the rest of the party. "Um..." Imoen burst out laughing at his helpless expression and covered her face. Khalid shook his head helplessly. Montaron snickered.

"Best give him what he wants so he stops shouting," the halfling advised with a cruel wink. "And sleep with one eye open, 'ncase he tries to bottle some o' dem 'music sparkles.' Ha!"

Garrick made a face, but as he realized his position was beside Aegis, he gave her a look to make sure she was alright with the necromancer coveting the dirt on her left-hand side. She laughed. "It's fine," she told him. "He doesn't worry me."

"Xzar only behaves for Aegis," Imoen decided aloud, and then laughed again because it was true. Aegis, who was getting her chain shirt off over her head at the time, just grunted.

"Lies!" Xzar proclaimed, then hissed at Garrick until the man had rolled his sleeping back back up and gone to put it elsewhere. Satisfied, Xzar knelt and made a little dirt castle where Garrick had been, took out a cloth, drew an 'X' on it, tied it to a twig, and then planted it into the castle like a flag. "There! now my claim will never be mistaken again," he cooed happily. "What do you think, Monty?"

"I think yer insane," the halfling responded, and he was glad he now had an entire party to buffer the wizard's ramblings with instead of being forced to take them all onto himself.

"Fools! Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad! MAD! Uaahahahahahaaeheheehuaaahh- Ah, But they won't get me! UAHAHAHAH!"

In the mean time, Garrick had gotten himself settled elsewhere and brought out his lute. He was tuning it now, as Aegis and the others tried to get some sleep, and had begun to play the first low, soothing notes of a ballad, a love song. The sound was very restful to almost all who heard it, but it seemed to prick the hairs up on the back of Xzar's neck. He turned around like a venomous serpent. Aegis noted. Before he could run off claiming any more land for Xzartania, she sat back up, grabbed him by the collar and yanked him back to the ground. Xzar eeped as he tumbled downward.

"Put out your sleeping roll," she scolded him gently. "And calm down, the bard isn't going to eat you."

"He was trying to steal my spellbook!" the wizard offered false testimony

"Xzar, I'm trying to sleep." She rolled onto her back and closed her eyes.

Xzar made an unhappy nose in his throat. He laid where he had fallen for a moment, looking hesitantly over towards his bedroll. Then he looked back at her and made a low purring sound in the depths of his throat. He sidled a little further onto her bedroll and pushed up against her.

"I don't want _my_ bedroll," he rumbled in a soft and almost predatory voice, "I want _yours_..."

Imoen heard that. She propped herself up on one arm and made the most disturbed face Aegis had ever seen. "_What?_" she asked. Aegis couldn't help but break out laughing; Imoen looked like she'd just eaten the most sour food humanly imaginable. Xzar pouted. Appeased by his unhappy expression, Imoen's disgusted face turned into one of amusement.

"Sorry Xzar, I think she's sparkled in it," the violet girl teased, earning a chuckle from Aegis. Xzar glowered at her, understanding that she was making light of him. She raised her voice so other could hear. "But I'm sure Monty'll snuggle you if you'd like!"

"Imma cut yer mouth out, girly," came an irritated grumble. Xzar looked equally horrified. The violet girl chuckled and rolled over.

"Night sis," she said softly.

Aegis grunted. She watched Xzar as the necromancer grumpily got to his knees and then pulled his sleeping roll into position. He crushed his dirt castle and then proceeded to turn his sleeping mat every which direction that was humanly imaginable. By this point the bard's soothing ballad was really starting to get to him. He shot a displeased glance in Khalid's direction, knowing the elf would prevent him from strangling Garrick and wondering if perhaps he had enough spells to silence them both. Then he realized Aegis couldn't sleep; she had opened her eyes again and was watching the stars.

Xzar tilted his head to the side, recalling the conversation he'd had with her in Beregost. He looked down at his crumpled mat and dirty bedroll and then got on his hands and knees and crawled back over to Aegis. Her eyes shifted to him as he leaned over her. A moment passed in silence. Then at last he told her, "I can share."

Her brows moved together as she tried to figure out what he was talking about. Then remembering his comment from earlier, she asked wryly, "Wouldn't that involve touching?" Xzar considered this for a moment. Then he shifted closer still.

"I don't think I mind touching you. Too much." His response seemed to startle her. A part of his mind knew his request was both nonsense and unreasonable; but an equally valid part of his mind had simply asked anyway; and the rest of his mind was busy naming her hairs. He was perplexed as she seemed to be when she suddenly sidled over and lifted up the side of her blankets. Hmm. Why? Perhaps... Warm? Living? Lethal?

Foolishly, but suddenly a little ravenous, he pushed his way under the covers and then winced when he realized just how _warm_ and alive she was, and just how much of him was touching her. Her pulse was simultaneously exciting and unsettling; and he couldn't decide if either was because he wanted to dig into those veins himself, or because wt any moment he expected her to dig into his. Then he realized the bard's song was driving him absolutely _insane_ and he couldn't remember having wanted to kill any man so badly in his life. Not that he was thinking particularly far back... Memory had a way of becoming fleeting at times... There was that one time, he recalled now...

Aegis watched his facial expression, her left hand hovering where it had dropped the blanket edge. Xzar did not lay down; he fidgeted a bit, clearly uncomfortable with being in such close proximity to another person. After a moment, she realized he wasn't calming down, and so lifted her arms up to encircle his body and attempted to pull him down against her chest. To her great fortune, he neither resisted nor shrieked. Pinned against her with his chin digging into her sternum, Xzar wriggled for a moment more before settling down and making a pleased hum in the back of his throat.

"You smell like basil and chamomile," the madman noted contently, bard song forgotten, tucking his face into the curve of her collarbone. "Chamomile is good for the stomach, you know."

Aegis just made a noise of acknowledgement and closed her eyes, wrapping both arms more comfortably about him. She hoped Khalid would be kind enough to rouse her before Montaron for the second watch. But then she supposed Jaheira would hear one way or another.

Bah, enough thinking about the morning; Maybe this way she could finally sleep.


	16. Madmen, Imbeciles, and Hamsters

When daylight forced Aegis into wakefulness, she blinked several times and then gazed upward in confusion at the steadily brightening sky. Something was not quite right. Then it registered: Why hadn't anyone woken her up so she could take her watch? As the seconds ticked by, she became more and more aware of the weight on top of her, and the disheveled hair tickling her cheek. Did this have anything to do with...?

Aegis heard footsteps, and then a pink clad girl appeared above her. _Oh sweet Oghma. I am sorry I kept secrets. So sorry. So, so, so-_

Imoen scratched her head. "Sooo..." she drawled slowly, confused and unknowingly mimicking the word Aegis was repeating ad nauseum in her mind.

_-so, so, so sorry..._

"Why... exactly... is...?" Imoen hazarded, waiting for Aegis to jump in and explain.

The ranger winced. She could... try and cover this up, say that Xzar had insisted on occupying her bedroll and she didn't want to set him shrieking. But then no doubt dear Oghma, god of knowledge and hater of deceit, would become very cross with her, and the amount of trouble she was in would escalate accordingly. The trouble with telling the truth, however, was that Aegis didn't precisely know what the truth was.

"Hellooo? You awake?"

"He's warm," Aegis muttered, pressing her face into the wizard's hair.

"So's the bard, I'd wager." The pink girl seemed bewildered.

"Yes," Aegis allowed, making a face. "But despite my best efforts, I didn't wake up naked on top of the bard in Beregost."

"Pity, that. Wait, what?"

"So... when ya mentioned you'd been forced to sleep with Montaron it took a second or two for-"

"Eeewww!" Imoen shrieked as quietly as she could manage. It wasn't clear whether the idea of Aegis and Xzar or herself and Montaron grossed her out more. "How did-? Why did-?"

Aegis shook her head, not knowing. Then her eyes closed to slits as she took in the wizard's scent. "I like him, Immy."

"I'm not sure that's safe for your health! But, well, whatever floats your boat. Gonna be hard keeping Jaheira off your back on that count, but nothing new there." Imoen scratched the back of her head. "I always though you liked strong warrior types, though."

Aegis made an inarticulate helpless sound. "I'm going to try and wake him up. Cover your ears, the probability that he remembers how he got into this position is low."

.-

* * *

The entire party shot her odd looks for the rest of the trip south. Well, except for Xzar himself. He was oblivious to all the attention she was receiving, and instead spent the time eagerly awaiting the times the bard would play his lyre; he would then burst into songs about all the useful properties of Garrick's organs. This experience was quite unsettling for the bard, who after a day no longer had the heart to touch his instrument.

Jahiera didn't say anything, although she brooded something foul. Montaron kept making disgusted faces. Khalid sighed a lot. Goodness it was like she'd killed someone or contracted some terrible disease; all she'd done was wake up with the Necromancer curled up on top of her. Then again when viewed out of context...

Well, alright, maybe she _was_ just a little crazy. But Xzar curled up beside her the next day as well, and she wasn't about to stop him.

The group passed into Amnish territory without too much of a fuss; and nothing they met jeopardized the party to such an extent as the ogre had. Still, by the time they reached Nashkel they were simultaneously exhausted from the road and eager to get their hands dirty with more serious work. As they headed for the first tavern, Aegis cooing excitedly about beer, the necromancer suddenly grabbed her shoulder.

"I don't think we should go in there," he cooed.

Montaron sniffed at the physical contact between the two of them, as if mildly disturbed by it. "The hell ye on about now, wizard?"

Xzar sneered. "If you haven't noticed, insipid little toooaaad, our valiant leader has a terrible track record with inn patrons."

"The hell ye talking about, she's one o' the inn's best patrons and- ah." Montaron paused, struck by the sudden realization. A similar thought had dawned on the rest of the party (Aside from Garrick) almost simultaneously: Aegis had been ambushed in or around an inn in two out of the three last locations she'd visited.

"We should be careful not to look too defensive," Jaheira decided. "If there are problems, we want to flush them out now."

Montaron nodded, agreeing despite his personal grievances. He drew his dirk out and ran his thumb along the blade. "I'll go in first," he decided, "get a look at them backsides."

"I'm with ya!" Imoen agreed, bounding in after him. The rest of the group explained the general state of their problem to Garrick before entering a few minutes later. Khalid and Jahiera went first, with the aim of using entanglements and shields to keep would-be assassins from Aegis. Garrick endeavored to keep off to the side, as he was little direct use in a fight. He plucked a few strings in preparation.

The blonde ranger thought to herself that these preparations were just a bit excessive, but then she remember that she'd nearly been blown apart by a mage and severed in half by a dwarf. She glanced behind her. Xzar, the only individual no one had attempted to position or plan for, was hovering just behind her with his hand gently grasping her elbow. He noticed her gaze and gave a knowing smile.

The group was in the inn no longer than a hundred and twenty seconds when a surly woman with a viperous accent sauntered up to them. After she'd stated her business and distressed the entire tavern, she was summarily buried underneath a dirk, an entangle spell, a tower shield, two arrows, and a nasty green minor drain spell. Khalid hemmed the trapped woman down into the floor with his shield. She put two huge dents in the metal, ripped the arrows out of her shoulder and stabbed Jahiera in the thigh with them. Montaron wrestled her into a headlock and then pulled his blade through her neck.

Aegis stood inactive in the doorway, surprised. Gorion had been right right; the road had a perverse sort of safety to it.

Amnish soldiers rushed in, elbowing roughly past Aegis and Xzar. They threw Khalid off of the woman, pulled her off the ground, and healed her just enough to save her life. When she threw herself screaming in Jahiera's direction they dragged her kicking and choking, given that Montaron had wrecked havoc on her airways) through the streets. The druid snorted and then looked up as two guards approached her, their faces grim.

Aegis watched the conversation unfold, but realized it was unnecessary for her to intervene. The guards were slightly hostile in demeanor towards Jahiera at first (And as it was Jahiera, she was none-too-polite back), but Khalid interrupted and his helpless stuttering was enough to convince them that the party was blameless in the matter.

Montaron growled to himself and then stomped up to Aegis. He held a piece of parchment up to her, which she took and quickly unrolled it. It was a bounty notice; Montaron must have pulled it off the woman while the guards were apprehending her. "Told ya it'd go up," the halfling rumbled. He glanced at Xzar. Aegis didn't see it, but the necromancer pouted and shook his head vehemently. The halfling sneered, disgusted, and went to get himself an ale. She watched him go and sighed to herself.

"Why am I worth this?" she muttered.

"You're _very_ special," the necromancer cooed nasally beside her ear.

"_Apparently_," she grumbled. "I _am_."

* * *

The inn had commoner rooms with two bunks each; the group split up into Team Elf, Team Unsavory, and Team Candlekeep (Imoen was trying to refer to them as 'Team Pink' or 'Team Girlpower' but Aegis was having none of that). Garrick, who was largely broke, elected to steal the floor in Khalid and Jaheira's room. The night went by uneventfully with no assassins sneaking in through the room's windows.

"Are you going to throw things at me too?" "No."

In the morning they became acquainted with Well-Adjusted Al, who ran the store just alongside the inn to the south. After hearing his story, they tried to purchase plate mail in exchange for a small duck, and although the man looked sorely tempted, he was able to resist the trade.

"How about now?" "No." "How about now?" "No." "How about now?" "No."

"There sure is a lot of trouble going on 'round these parts," Imoen noted.

"How about now?" "No." "How about now?" "No." "How about now?" "No."

"Much of it is connected to the problems in the mines," Jaheira answered. "The region's bandit activity, for example, is spiking because of the iron shortage. We spoke to some of the men who left the Nashkel mines and are now attempting to make their living as farmers or fishermen."

"How about now?" "No." "How about now?" "No." "How about now?" "No."

"What do they have to say?" Montarson asked, curious despite where this information was coming from.

"How about now?" "No." "How about now?" "No." "How about now?" "No."

"They talk of demons in the mines, and comment that no one has been to the deepest levels in months. Apparently something dark is down there, and it is not only making mining difficult but also murdering stray miners. A significant number of men have gone 'missing' in the depths."

"How about now?" "No." "How about now?" "No." "How about now?" "No."

"Oooh, sounds _delightful_!" Xzar cooed. "Why... are you _scared_?"

"How about now?" "No." "How about now?" "No." "How about now?" "No."

Jaheira's nostrils flared as she eyed the necromancer with utmost contempt. "We may wish to add another capable fighter or healer to our group," she allowed at last. "And we would not be remiss to better our gear. A magical weapon, reinforced against the plague, might be the difference between life and death in those narrow tunnels."

"How about now?" "No." "How about now?" "No." "How about now?" "No."

Imoen giggled, because Jaheira had been complaining about their rate of travel from the moment they first picked her up at the Friendly Arm. Now _she_ was the one advocating they go slow and distract themselves. The group was walking towards the southern end of town.

"Wow, I've run out of things to say!"

The rest of the group blinked and turned in surprise to where Garrick and a strange villager who went by the name of Noober were talking. Noober had walked up to the group around an hour ago and had begun talking nonstop. The rest of the group had been struggling valiantly to tune him out, though when it seemed he had run out of creative lines he had resorted to asking 'how about now?' over and over and over again.

Before Xzar or Montaron could murder the poor imbecile, Aegis had pushed Garrick into conversation with Noober, and asked the rest of the group to stand off to the side and ignore him.

"You guys are _aaalllriggghtt_!" Noober cooed, and then he skipped off into the town. Garrick watched puzzled as he went, and then turned to the rest of the group and shrugged helplessly.

"What a curious fellow," Garrick observed cheerfully. "What all were we talking about then?"

Xzar frowned. "I was hoping they would kill each-other through slow intellectual drain," he observed to Aegis and Jaheira sadly. "I could try and finish off the process you know, it would only take a few chicken spleens and an eye of newt."

Jaheira sighed and put a hand over her face. "Save us all from madmen, fools, and wizards-" she grumbled. "This day has been _filled_ with insanity and-"

Just then, the party was accosted by a large bald man with a violet tattoo over the side of his face. "Stand and deliver!" he shouted, thrusting a furry orange rodent into Aegis's face. "That my hamster might have a better look at you!"

* * *

Let's face it; the crazy ones are the funnest!


End file.
